Designing Single Ended UHF BJT Mixer

F.Kung Sep 2001 1

Designing A Single Ended UHF BJT Mixer Using the ADS Software

Objectives:
A simple UHF Mixer operating at 430.0 MHz is designed. The RF signal at 430.0
MHz is down converted into IF frequency of 20.0 MHz.
The mixer is targeted to have no attenuation (conversion gain of 0dB) and an
operating noise figure of less than 10dB.
The design steps are divided into 5 parts. These are the DC biasing of the mixer
circuit, S-parameters measurement for RF and IF, input matching, output matching
and final design verification.

Background:
The transistor chosen for the job is BFR92A which comes in SOT-23 package. The
maximum I
C
sustainable by the transistor is 30.0mA, with transition frequency f
T
=
5GHz.
Since this is a large signal nonlinear circuit, substantial harmonics will be generated,
therefore the chosen simulation method is the Harmonic Balance Method.
The transistor is biased in emitter degenerated common-emitter configuration.
The mixer is driven by a RF source with 50Ohms source resistance, and LO (local
oscillator) source with 50Ohms source resistance and sustaining a load resistance of
50Ohms. The block diagram of the mixer is shown in Figure 1.


















Figure 1 Block diagram of the mixer circuit.

Step 1: DC biasing and S-parameters measurement
The raw circuit of the mixer is shown in Figure 2. LO signal is pumped into the emitter
of Q1 while RF signal is imposed on the base of Q1. This configuration improves
isolation between the LO, IF and RF signals. You will notice that each signal is
connected to different pin of the transistor. The LO signal is quite large, the BE junction
RF Source
Input
Matching
Network
Core mixer
circuit
Local Oscillator
(LO)
Output
Matching
Network
Load
Power supply and
decoupling
Designing Single Ended UHF BJT Mixer
F.Kung Sep 2001 2
of Q1 serves to attenuate the LO power (See book by Razavi [1] or Lee [3]) This will
minimize radiation of the LO signal through the receive antenna. To further improve
isolation, the IF and RF port should have the following characteristics:
At IF port, RF signal should be shunted, only allowing low frequency signal (IF) to
pass.
At RF port, IF signal should be shunted, only allowing high frequency signal (RF) to
pass.
These characteristics can be simulated be inserting artificial elements at both ports. The
impedance of the element is a function of frequency. In ADS, this is implemented using
the equation based linear elements, which can be accessed from the Eqn Based-Linear
linear component palette.


For instance for ZIP1 at RF port, the impedance is equal to 1Ohm when signal frequency
is less than 100MHz and 1000Ohm at other frequencies. These artificial elements can be
realized using lumped elements after incorporating the matching networks at RF and IF
port. The subsequent steps will illustrate the procedure.
NOTE:
Byconvention for a successful analysis of mixer:
1. Set the RF input to PORT 1, IF output to PORT 2 and
LO input to PORT 3 (by editing the NUM property).
2. Set the signal with largest amplitude to Freq[1] to
ensure convergence of the HB method.
Z_RF is to simulate short at IF and high impedance at RF.
Z_IF is to simulate high impedance at IF and short at RF.
A realistic value for short would be 1-5 Ohms while a realistic
value for high impedance would be 500-2000 Ohms.
S_Param
SP1
SweepPlan="SwpPlan1"
S-PARAMETERS
SweepPlan
SwpPlan1
SweepPlan=
UseSweepPlan=
Pt=430.0MHz
Pt=410.0MHz
Pt=20.0MHz
SWEEP PLAN
DC
DC1
DC
L
Lb
R=
L=220.0 nH
R
Rb
R=47 kOhm
VAR
VAR1
RF_pow=-20
freq_RF=430 Mhz
freq_LO=410 Mhz
Eqn
Var
C
Cc2
C=10.0 pF
C
Cc3
C=330.0 pF
C
Cc1
C=330.0 pF
R
RLO
R=50 Ohm
Z1P_Eqn
Z1P2
Z[1,1]=Z_IF
VAR
VAR2
Z_IF=if freq < 100MHz then 1000 else 1endif
Z_RF=if freq < 100MHz then 1 else 1000 endif
Eqn
Var
Z1P_Eqn
Z1P1
Z[1,1]=Z_RF
Term
Term2
Z=50 Ohm
Num=2
Term
Term1
Z=50 Ohm
Num=1
V_DC
SRC1
Vdc=3.0 V
R
R2
R=1 kOhm
R
Re
R=330 Ohm
pb_phl_BFR92A_19921214
Q1

Figure 2 The schematic of the raw mixer with no matching.

DC simulation is performed on the schematic and the transistor voltage and current is as
follows:
V
C
V
E
V
B
I
C
1.82V 0.39V 1.14V 1.17mA
ZIP1
Low impedance at IF
and high impedance
at RF.
Designing Single Ended UHF BJT Mixer
F.Kung Sep 2001 3
S-parameter Simulation
For mixer operation, we are only interested with S-parameters at 3 frequencies (IF =
20MHz, LO = 410 MHz and RF = 430 MHz), thus a sweep plan is used instead of
measuring the S-parameters at all frequencies. The Sweep Plan window can be accessed
from S-Parameters control as shown in Figure 3.


Figure 3 Sweep Plan setting.

The result of S-parameters simulation is shown below:
freq
20.00MHz
410.0MHz
430.0MHz
S(1,1)
0.968 / -128.490
0.876 / -22.603
0.874 / -23.693
Z(1,1)
1.000 - j24.115
77.551 - j224.546
72.572 - j215.009
freq
20.00MHz
410.0MHz
430.0MHz
S(2,2)
0.817 / -1.036
0.961 / -177.300
0.961 / -177.425
Z(2,2)
493.913 - j44.025
0.999 - j1.178
0.999 - j1.123

Table 1 S-parameters for raw mixer circuit.







The input impedance at
IF and RF ports.
Assuming linear
operation.
Designing Single Ended UHF BJT Mixer
F.Kung Sep 2001 4
Step 2: Harmonic Balance Simulation of Raw Mixer Circuit
In order to illustrate the effect of having proper impedance matching circuits at both RF
and IF ports, we perform a quick analysis of the raw mixer circuit. The schematic is
shown in Figure 4. L
1
and C
1
are arbitrarily added with the purpose of filtering out RF
signal from the IF port. Current probes are added as measuring power requires both
voltage and current information. If performing Harmonic Balance simulation for a circuit
with multi-tone sources, some precautions have to be taken to ensure convergence and
sufficient accuracy.
The LO source, being larger in magnitude should be assigned to frequency [1] and
given a higher order (more harmonics are considered).
The MaxOrder variable should follows the order of LO.
NOTE:
Byconvention for a successful analysis of mixer:
1. Set the RF input to PORT 1, IF output to PORT 2 and
LO input to PORT 3 (byediting the NUM property).
2. Set the signal with largest amplitude to Freq[1] to
ensure convergence of the HB method.
L
Lb
R=
L=220.0 nH
R
Rb
R=47 kOhm
HarmonicBalance
HB1
Order[2]=5
Order[1]=7
Freq[2]=freq_RF
Freq[1]=freq_LO
MaxOrder=7
HARMONIC BALANCE
DC
DC1
DC
VAR
VAR1
RF_pow=-20
freq_RF=430 Mhz
freq_LO=410 Mhz
Eqn
Var
P_1Tone
Prf
Freq=freq_RF
P=polar(dbmtow(RF_pow),0)
Z=50 Ohm
Num=1
C
C1
C=47.0 pF
C
Cc3
C=100.0 pF
I_Probe
ILoad
L
L1
R=
L=100.0 nH
V_DC
SRC1
Vdc=3.0 V
R
R2
R=1 kOhm
R
RL
R=50 Ohm
I_Probe
ISource
C
Cc1
C=100.0 pF
C
Cc2
C=10.0 pF
P_1Tone
PLO
Freq=freq_LO
P=polar(dbmtow(0),0)
Z=50 Ohm
Num=2
R
Re
R=330 Ohm
pb_phl_BFR92A_19921214
Q1

Figure 4 Harmonic Balance simulation of raw mixer circuit.

Conversion Gain of Mixer
The conversion gain G
C
is defined as:

G
C
= Power
IF
/Power
RF
or G
C
= 10log
10
(Power
IF
/Power
RF
)

For this raw mixer schematic, it is (Refer to Appendix 2 for the data display)
G
C
= -18.866dB for RF_pow = -20dBm.




This source will
supply 20dBm
power to a matched
load, in this case
50.
Built-in
function to
convert dBm to
Watt
Designing Single Ended UHF BJT Mixer
F.Kung Sep 2001 5
Step 3: Performing Matching at RF and IF Ports
The input impedance at RF port is Z
rf
= 72.572 j215.009 (From Table 1). We would
like to transform this to 50 to match to the RF source impedance. The schematic to
achieve this is shown in Figure 5.
This is the input impedance at
RF frequency, from the stand-point
of RF source.
We would like to tranform
the impedance Z_in into
50 Ohm, from the point of
view of the RF source after
the L network.
C
Cm1
C=0.335 pF
VAR
VAR1
Z_in=72.572-j*215.009
Eqn
Var
L
Lm1
R=
L=68 nH
S_Param
SP1
Step=1.0 MHz
Stop=0.430 GHz
Start=0.430 GHz
S-PARAMETERS
Z1P_Eqn
Z1P1
Z[1,1]=Z_in
DC_Block
DC_Block1
Term
Term1
Z=50 Ohm
Num=1

Figure 5 Matching network design for RF port.

The input impedance at IF port is Z
if
= 493.913 j44.025 (From Table 1). We would
like to transform this to 50 to match to the IF load impedance. The schematic to
achieve this is shown in Figure 6.
We would like to tranform
the load impedance into
conjugate of Z_if, from the
point of view of the mixer IF
output.
Z_if = 493.913 - j*44.025
This is the load impedance at
IF frequency, from the stand-point
of the mixer IF output
S_Param
SP1
Step=1.0 MHz
Stop=20 MHz
Start=20 MHz
S-PARAMETERS
L
Lm2
R=
L=1203 nH
C
Cm2
C=47 pF
R
RL
R=50 Ohm
DC_Block
DC_Block1
Term
Term1
Z=50 Ohm
Num=1

Figure 6 Matching network design for IF port.
Designing Single Ended UHF BJT Mixer
F.Kung Sep 2001 6
Optimizing the IF Matching Network to Filter Out High Frequency Signal
The matching networks from Figure 6 is good enough for the IF port. However it is still
not sufficient for suppressing high frequency signals (note that the configuration of the
network is low pass). C
m2
= 47pF at 410MHz is only 8.26. We would like to increase
C
m2
further to reduce this impedance (recall that the artificial device ZIP2 at RF is only
1). This can be achieved by using a network, with more degree of freedom we can
choose C
m2
to suit our purpose. The completed circuit is shown in Figure 7. Now at
410MHz, |X
Cm2
| = 4.00. This should be sufficient for bypassing RF signal, as the load
is 50, so this impedance is 10 times smaller than load impedance.
We would like to tranform
the load impedance into
conjugate of Z_if, from the
point of view of the mixer IF
output.
Z_if = 493.913 - j*44.025
This is the load impedance at
IF frequency, from the stand-point
of the mixer IF output
S_Param
SP1
Step=1.0 MHz
Stop=20 MHz
Start=20 MHz
S-PARAMETERS
C
Cm3
C=270.5 pF
L
Lm2
R=
L=800 nH
C
Cm2
C=97 pF
R
RL
R=50 Ohm
DC_Block
DC_Block1
Term
Term1
Z=50 Ohm
Num=1

Figure 7 Matching network design for IF port using network.

NOTE
Note that in carrying out the impedance matching procedure, we are assuming the
transistor to be operating in a quasi-linear mode. It is nonlinear so as to produce the
mixing effect, yet the linearity is small enough so that the usual linear procedure and
concept of impedance can be applied. Usually this is a valid assumption.













Designing Single Ended UHF BJT Mixer
F.Kung Sep 2001 7
Step 4: Complete Circuit Simulation and SSB Noise Analysis
After including the matching networks, the raw mixer circuit becomes as shown in Figure
8. At RF port, L
b
together with C
byp1
shunts the low frequency IF signal (at 20Mhz,
220nH inductance is considered small, only 27). While at IF port, C
m2
serves to shunt
the RF signal.
NOTE:
By conventi on for a successful anal ysis of mi xer:
1. Set the RF i nput to PORT 1, IF output to PORT 2 and
LO i nput to PORT 3 (by edi ti ng the NUMproperty).
2. Set the signal wi th largest ampl itude to Freq[1] to
ensure convergence of the HB method.
Input matching network
Output matchi ng network
VAR
VAR1
RF_pow=-20
freq_RF=430 Mhz
freq_LO=410 Mhz
Eqn
Var
C
Cc2
C=15.0 pF
C
Cdec
C=1000.0 pF
Options
Options1
MaxWarni ngs=10
Gi veAll Warni ngs=yes
I_RelTol=1e-6
V_RelTol =1e-6
Topol ogyCheck=yes
Temp=23.85
OPTIONS
HarmonicBal ance
HB1
Other=OutVar="RF_pow"
NoiseOutputPort=2
NoiseInputPort=1
FreqForNoise=freq_RF-freq_LO
NLNoiseMode=yes
Order[2]=5
Order[1]=7
Freq[2]=freq_RF
Freq[1]=freq_LO
MaxOrder=7
HARMONIC BALANCE
DC
DC1
DC
R
Rb
R=47 kOhm
R
R2
R=1000 Ohm
P_1Tone
Prf
Freq=freq_RF
P=pol ar(dbmtow(RF_pow),0)
Z=50 Ohm
Num=1
Term
Term3
Z=50 Ohm
Num=2
P_1Tone
PLO
Freq=freq_LO
P=pol ar(dbmtow(0),0)
Z=50 Ohm
Num=3
L
Lm1
R=
L=68.0 nH
I_Probe
ISource
C
Cm3
C=270.5 pF
L
Lm3
R=
L=800.0 nH
C
Cm2
C=97.0 pF
I_Probe
ILoad
C
Cc3
C=330.0 pF
C
Cm1
C=0.33 pF
C
Cc1
C=330.0 pF
L
Lb
R=
L=220.0 nH
C
Cbyp1
C=1000.0 pF
V_DC
SRC1
Vdc=3.0 V
R
Re
R=330 Ohm
pb_phl_BFR92A_19921214
Q1

Figure 8 Complete mixer circuit.

We now set up the Harmonic Balance Simulation control. This time in addition to the
usual harmonic balance analysis, the nonlinear noise analysis is also activated. The
Option control is to set the operating temperature. The nonlinear noise window can be
accessed via the Harmonic Balance control as shown in Figure 9. The parameters for the
Noise[1] tab is as follows:
Sweep Type : Point. We are analyzing spot noise here.
Input frequency = RF frequency.
Frequency: This is the frequency where the noise at IF port is measured. It is equal to
IF frequency or (RF frequency) (LO frequency).

The Noise[2] and NoiseCons tabs are not used. When noise simulation is enabled, the
software will calculate the noise figure (NF) and equivalent noise temperature (TE) at
various ports of the circuit. These values will be included in the dataset after the
Harmonic Balance simulation is completed.

IF power
RF power
Designing Single Ended UHF BJT Mixer
F.Kung Sep 2001 8

Figure 9 Setting up nonlinear noise analysis through Noise[1] tab.

NOTE ON NOISE SIMULATION
1. Small-signal noise is used for circuits like amplifier. In this case the amplifier circuit
will be linearized at the d.c. bias point. Equivalent noise source will be impose on
elements such as PN junctions and resistors. System noise and noise figure are then
computed, either at one frequency (spot noise) or a band of frequency (wideband
noise).
2. Nonlinear noise is used for large signal circuits like power amplifier and mixer. It is
used with Harmonic Balance simulation where the noise must be computed at the
fundamental frequency, but also at the harmonics as well. Moreover the noise
voltage and current must be computed at various operating points of the steady
voltage and current since the circuit under analysis is a large signal circuit. Thus
nonlinear noise analysis requires much more computation power and memory than
just pure Harmonic Balance analysis.
This is the port where wide-band
noise is input (RF port).
This is the port where noise power is
retrieved (IF port).
To compute spot noise.
The frequency where the noise will be
input to the circuit. In this case it is
the RF frequency for down-converter,
i.e. Noise_freq + LO_freq = RF_freq
Enable nonlinear noise simulation
Designing Single Ended UHF BJT Mixer
F.Kung Sep 2001 9
3. Oscillation noise is used for computation of phase noise of oscillator. Again the noise
voltage and current need to be computed at various operating points under steady
state condition.
4. There are 2 methods for noise simulation, using the Noise[1] and Noise[2] tabs, and
using the NoiseCons tab. NoiseCons tab is used for several noise simulation, this
eliminates the need to change the values on the Noise[x] tab. It can be used for noise
sweeping calculation. Please refer to online help of ADS for more information.

Result
Upon running the simulation and using the data display as in Appendix to show the signal
spectrum, the conversion gain (for RF input power at 20dBm) is calculated as:
G
C
= -0592

This is a substantial improvement over the raw mixer circuit in Step 2, where the
conversion gain is only 18.866dB or 0.013. The voltage and current magnitude
spectrum is depicted in Figure 10. From the figure it is proven that output at IF port
consists mainly of a 20MHz component, the RF components are highly suppressed.
Furthermore the nonlinear noise analysis shows that the noise figure of the mixer is
roughly:
NF
dB
= 8.984 dB

Which is an acceptable value for single transistor mixer.



Designing Single Ended UHF BJT Mixer
F.Kung Sep 2001 10
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0
0.0000
0.0001
0.0002
0.0003
0.0004
0.0005
0.0006
f req, GHz
I
L
o
a
d
.
i
m3
m1
freq=2.000E7Hz
Vout=0.030 / -124.846
m2
f req=4.700E8Hz
Vout=2.016E-9 / 168.315
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
0.000
0.005
0.010
0.015
0.020
0.025
0.030
freq, GHz
V
o
u
t
m1
m2

Figure 10 Magnitude of output voltage and current spectrum.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
-40
-20
0
20
40
time, nsec
V
o
u
t
_
t
,

m
V
I
o
u
t
_
t
,

m
A

Figure 11A Time domain steady state output voltage and current.




Designing Single Ended UHF BJT Mixer
F.Kung Sep 2001 11


0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
-250
-200
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
time, nsec
V
i
n
_
t
,

m
V
I
i
n
_
t
,

m
A

Figure 11B Time domain steady state input voltage and current.

Step 5: Gain Compression Test
By modifying the Harmonic Balance Simulation control, we could change the schematic
of Figure 8 into a gain compression test. This is done by sweeping the RF power level as
shown in Figure 12.
HarmonicBalance
HB1
Other=
Lin=10
Stop=10
Start=-30
SweepVar="RF_pow"
NoiseOutputPort=2
NoiseInputPort=1
FreqForNoise=freq_RF-freq_LO
NLNoiseMode=
Order[2]=5
Order[1]=7
Freq[2]=freq_RF
Freq[1]=freq_LO
MaxOrder=7
HARMONIC BALANCE

Figure 12 Changing the HB Simulation control for gain compression test.


Designing Single Ended UHF BJT Mixer
F.Kung Sep 2001 12
The result of gain compression test is shown in Figure 13. It is seen that 1dB gain
compression occurs roughly at RF input power level of 5dBm.
-30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
RF_pow
P
i
f
_
d
b
m
P
i
f
_
e
x
t

Figure 13 Gain Compression test.


References
B. Razavi, RF Microelectronics, Prentice Hall, 1998.
R. Ludwig, P. Bretchko, RF circuit design theory and application, Prentice Hall,
2000.
T.H. Lee, The design of CMOS radio-frequency integrated circuits, Cambridge
University Press, 1998.















Designing Single Ended UHF BJT Mixer
F.Kung Sep 2001 13
Appendix 1 Photograph of the constructed UHF mixer based on schematic of
Figure 8


























Appendix 2 Agilent ADS Data Display Used (ADS 2000)
Data Display for Conversion Gain and Nonlinear Noise Analysis:
Local Oscillator
Input
RF Input
IF Output
To 3.0-3.3V D.C.
Source
1.57mm thick FR4 printed
circuit board
BNC to PCB
adapter
SMA to PCB
adapter
Designing Single Ended UHF BJT Mixer
F.Kung Sep 2001 14
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
freq, GHz
V
o
u
t
,

m
V
Use the mix( ) function to extract a certain frequencycomponent.
Since the simulation has two frequencysources, the frequency
component indexes is two dimensional, i.e. {m1,m2}.
For example mix(Vout, {-1,1}) extracts Vout at frequency20MHz.
The variables Mix(1) and Mix(2) is the frequencyindexes. Usually
we employthe list function to displaythe frequencycomponents of
a voltage or current together with the indexes.
Eqn Vif = mix(Vout,{-1,1})
Eqn Iif = mix(ILoad.i,{-1,1})
Eqn
Pif = 0.5*re(Vif*conj(Iif))
Eqn Pif_dbm = 10*log10(Pif) + 30
Eqn G_conv= Pif_dbm-RF_pow[0]
freq
20.00MHz
Pi f_dbm
-20.592
G_conv
-0.592
Alternativelywe could just write:
Pif = mix(0.5*re(Vout*conj(ILoad.i),{-1,1},Mix), Mixis variable for
all frequencycomponents, it is onlyneeded when we want to extract
an expression as in above.
The conversion gain G_convis defined as:
G_conv= 10*log(Pif/Prf)
freq
0.0000 Hz
20.00MHz
40.00MHz
60.00MHz
350.0MHz
370.0MHz
390.0MHz
410.0MHz
430.0MHz
450.0MHz
470.0MHz
490.0MHz
780.0MHz
800.0MHz
820.0MHz
840.0MHz
860.0MHz
880.0MHz
900.0MHz
1.190GHz
1.210GHz
1.230GHz
1.250GHz
1.270GHz
1.290GHz
1.310GHz
1.330GHz
1.620GHz
1.640GHz
1.660GHz
1.680GHz
1.700GHz
Vout
0.000 / 0.000
0.030 / -124.846
5.586E-5 / 115...
1.242E-6 / 79....
6.083E-9 / -16...
4.881E-8 / -14...
2.469E-7 / -15...
7.107E-6 / 48....
1.174E-6 / -13...
6.112E-9 / 123...
2.016E-9 / 168...
2.372E-10 / -1...
5.899E-9 / -10...
5.177E-8 / -12...
7.578E-7 / -14...
1.668E-7 / 37....
6.552E-9 / -13...
1.754E-10 / -5...
3.484E-11 / -1...
3.924E-9 / 9.896
2.127E-8 / 4.076
1.508E-7 / -1.6...
4.352E-8 / 178...
3.191E-9 / 2.201
4.725E-11 / 16...
4.465E-12 / 18...
2.797E-11 / 12...
6.599E-9 / 143...
3.168E-8 / 144...
1.124E-8 / -40....
1.154E-9 / 135...
3.715E-11 / -4...
ILoad.i
0.000 / 0.000
5.908E-4 / -12...
1.117E-6 / 115...
2.483E-8 / 79....
1.217E-10 / -1...
9.762E-10 / -1...
4.939E-9 / -15...
1.421E-7 / 48....
2.348E-8 / -13...
1.222E-10 / 12...
4.033E-11 / 16...
4.744E-12 / -1...
1.180E-10 / -1...
1.035E-9 / -12...
1.516E-8 / -14...
3.335E-9 / 37....
1.310E-10 / -1...
3.507E-12 / -5...
6.967E-13 / -1...
7.847E-11 / 9....
4.255E-10 / 4....
3.016E-9 / -1.6...
8.704E-10 / 17...
6.382E-11 / 2....
9.450E-13 / 16...
8.930E-14 / 18...
5.595E-13 / 12...
1.320E-10 / 14...
6.335E-10 / 14...
2.248E-10 / -4...
2.307E-11 / 13...
7.429E-13 / -4...
Mi x(1)
0
-1
-2
-3
4
3
2
1
0
-1
-2
-3
4
3
2
1
0
-1
-2
5
4
3
2
1
0
-1
-2
5
4
3
2
1
Mi x(2)
0
1
2
3
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
4
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
4
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
4
5
-1
0
1
2
3
noi sefreq
20.00MHz
te(2)
2004.840
nf(2)
8.984
Noise Figure at IF output and the equivalent Noise temparature
The conversion gain. The indexin RF_pow is arbitrary, as RF_pow
is a constant, it is the same for all frequencies.
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
freq, GHz
I
L
o
a
d
.
i
,

u
A
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
0.00
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.10
0.12
0.14
0.16
freq, GHz
m
a
g
(
V
i
n
)
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
0.0000
0.0005
0.0010
0.0015
0.0020
0.0025
0.0030
0.0035
freq, GHz
m
a
g
(
I
S
o
u
r
c
e
.
i
)
Checkfor Local Oscillator coupling to input port
Examining the time domain signals
Eqn Vout_t = ts(Vout)
Eqn
Iout_t = ts(ILoad.i)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
-40
-20
0
20
40
ti me, nsec
V
o
u
t
_
t
,

m
V
I
o
u
t
_
t
,

m
A
Eqn Vin_t = ts(Vin)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
-250
-200
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
time, nsec
V
i
n
_
t
,

m
V
I
i
n
_
t
,

m
A
Eqn Iin_t = ts(ISource.i)

Designing Single Ended UHF BJT Mixer
F.Kung Sep 2001 15

Data Display for Gain Compresssion Test:
Eqn Vif = mix(Vout,{-1,1})
Eqn
Iif = mix(ILoad.i,{-1,1})
Eqn Pif = 0.5*re(Vif*conj(Iif))
Eqn Pif_dbm = 10*log10(Pif) + 30
-30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
RF_pow
P
i
f
_
d
b
m
P
i
f
_
e
x
t
Equation to determine the IF output power
Steps to extrapolate the IF power
Eqn
grad1 = (Pif_dbm[1] - Pif_dbm[0])/(RF_pow[1] - RF_pow[0])
Eqn C1 = Pif_dbm[0]
Eqn Pif_ext = grad1*( RF_pow - RF_pow[0]) + C1
Extrapolate IF power equation:













Designing Single Ended UHF BJT Mixer
F.Kung Sep 2001 16
Appendix 3 Measurement Results

A measurement is carried out to verify that the mixer does indeed function properly. The
Setup is shown in Figure A31. Key instruments used are an Agilent ESG series signal
generator, a normal 100MHz bandwidth bench top digital sampling oscilloscope (DSO),
power supply and an Agilent 89XX series Vector Signal Analyzer (VSA). The VSA is
only used as a spectrum analyzer in this instance, thus any low cost spectrum analyzer
will do.


Figure A31 The measurement setup.



Figure A32 Close-up view of the mixer.
Agilent ESG series
signal generator
Agilent 89XX
series VSA
100MHz digital
sampling
oscilloscope
(Tektronix)
Mixer & LO
Mixer
Battery to power
up mixer
From signal generator
(RF)
Variable
frequency
oscillator
(LO)
Probe to
DSO (IF)
Power
supply
for LO
Designing Single Ended UHF BJT Mixer
F.Kung Sep 2001 17
The settings for the various instruments are as follows:
LO:

RF source: frequency = 430.0MHz, Power = -20dBm into 50 load.
LO source: frequency 410 MHz , Power = -5.48dBm into 50 load.
Power supply for mixer: 3.0V.



Figure A33 Time domain IF output when RF signal is activated.


Figure A34 Time domain IF output when RF signal is deactivated.

The mixer can work properly for RF power level down to 50dBm, when IF output is
almost equivalent to the noise floor. It can work to a lower RF power level if the LO
power level is increase (say to 0dBm).