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Mixing It Up: A Double-Balanced Mixer with Wide RF and IF Bandwidth

Article in IEEE Microwave Magazine · January 2018

DOI: 10.1109/MMM.2017.2759659

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 2017
Student Design
Competition
Winners
IMS High-Dynamic-Range Mixer

Mixing It Up
Tiedi Zhang, Xiansuo Liu, Yuehang Xu, Lei Wang,
Ruimin Xu, and Bo Yan

T
his article presents the design details
of a wide-band, high-dynamic-range
passive gallium arsenide (GaAs) mix-
er submitted for the Student Design
Competition (SDC) held during the
IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Soci-
ety (MTT-S) 2017 International Microwave
Symposium in Honolulu, Hawaii, this past
May. The target of our research was to
achieve a wide-band mixer with high dy-
namic range and zero power consump-
tion. The “High-Dynamic-Range Mix-
er” SDC was sponsored by Technical
Coordination Committee MTT-22.
As one of the key building blocks
in RF systems, the mixer plays a cru-
cial role in wireless communication
systems. In most applications, a low-
loss, small-size, high-dynamic-range
mixer is required. Compared with an
active mixer, a passive mixer cannot sup-
ply gain; however, it is, in general, more lin-
ear and has zero power consumption. In the
last decade, many discrete passive mixers have
been reported [1]–[4]. Considering the physical
size requirements for the competition, we designed
the proposed mixer with GaAs technology, and the
entire circuit was fabricated on a single GaAs chip.
Image licensed by Ingram Publishing

Tiedi Zhang (teddyjohn1987@163.com), Xiansuo Liu (563960481@qq.com), Yuehang Xu (Yuehangxu@uestc.edu.cn),

Lei Wang (leiwang@uestc.edu.cn), Ruimin Xu (rmxu@uestc.edu.cn), and Bo Yan (yanbo@uestc.edu.cn)
are with the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MMM.2017.2759659
Date of publication: 12 December 2017

106 1527-3342/18©2018IEEE January/February 2018

 As outlined in the SDC guidelines, the proposed
mixer should satisfy the following design specifications:
•• RF frequency: 10–11 GHz
•• local oscillator (LO) frequency: 11–12 GHz
•• intermediate frequency (IF): 1 GHz ± 50 MHz
•• LO power: ≤13 dBm
•• conversion loss: ≤8 dB
•• noise figure: dB ≤9 dB
•• two-tone input: IIP3 ≥ + 19 dBm minimum
•• P1dB at input: ≥ + 10 dBm minimum
•• LO–RF isolation: ≥30 dB
•• size: ≤2 in × 2 in × 0.5 in
•• all ports terminated by 50-Ω female subminia-
ture-A connectors
•• mixer must be completely passive.
The performance evaluation is based on a figure of
merit (FOM) calculated as
FOM = IIP3 – NFdB + ^LR_isolation–30 h /4.
In these design specifications, the requested band-
width is narrow. However, for use in modern com-
munication systems, a mixer should be broadband
because a wide RF bandwidth means the mixer can
be used in variety communication modes, thus short-
ening the design cycle and saving design costs. With
improvements in transistor processing technology,
signal processing speeds are faster, resulting in wider
IF bandwidth. This provides a considerable challenge
in designing the mixer because the narrow IF band-
width may decrease system performance. Consider-
ing the importance of wide bandwidth, the design
team tried to extend the RF and IF bandwidths as
much as possible, while still maintaining the overall
circuit performance.
Mixer Design
According to their working principles, mixers can be
divided into single-device, single-balanced, and dou-
ble-balanced categories. Compared with the other two
types, the double-balanced mixer generates fewer spuri-
ous signals and exhibits better signal-leakage-suppres-
sion characteristics. For these reasons, we chose a mixer
with a passive double-balanced structure, as shown in
Figure 1. The proposed mixer consists of two balanced–
unbalanced transformers (baluns) and a diode ring
bridge built with four head-to-tail diodes. The LO and
RF signals are injected from the unbalanced ports and
transformed into differential form by the baluns. The
IF signals can be taken from the center of the balanced
coil. Because the LO power is usually larger than the RF
power, we chose the center of the RF balun as the output
port for high isolation.
Assuming all diodes have the same electronic char-
acteristics and the baluns are ideal, according to [5],
the output current can be calculated as
Considering the physical size
requirements for the competition,
we designed the proposed mixer
with GaAs technology, and the entire
circuit was fabricated on a single
GaAs chip.
I m, n exp 6 j ^m~ RF + n~ LOh t@
+3
i 0 (t) = /
m, n =-3 
# ^1 - e jmrh^1 - e jnrh, (1)
where m and n indicate the corresponding RF or LO
harmonic number and I m, n represents the current
component of the m-th RF harmonic wave and the
n-th LO harmonic wave. As (1) suggests, if m or n is
even, the output current is 0; i.e., the output current
contains only odd RF and LO harmonic components.
The IF output current can be calculated as when
m = 1, then n =-1
Mixer Balun
In most reported double-balanced passive mixers, the
design of the balun transformer is the most important
problem as it influences the conversion loss, noise fig-
ure, and isolation [6]. The Marchand balun is a com-
mon choice in monolithic microwave integrated circuit
(MMIC) mixer designs because it provides good ampli-
tude and phase balance [7]. Traditionally, the March-
and balun is composed of a half-wavelength ( m/2 )
transmission line and two back-to-back m/4 coupled
lines [8], as shown in Figure 2(a). The end of the unbal-
anced coil is always left short or open. To save chip
area, the transmission lines are often wrapped as coils
in the MMIC design.
In this traditional structure, however, the long
coils not only enlarge the balun size but also suppress
M M
LO RF
Ls /2 D2 D1
Ls /2
Ls /2 D3 D4 Ls /2
O/C O/C
i0 CIF
IF
Figure 1. The schematic of a double-balanced mixer.

January/February 2018 107

Comparing these two simulation balun and works as the output port for the IF signal
in the RF balun.
results shows that the tail capacitor The center working frequency of the proposed balun
shifts the effective working frequency can be calculated as [9]
from 32 to 10 GHz, while maintaining 1
~0 = , (2)
relatively good phase and amplitude ` L s - 2 j C tail 
M

performance.
where L s is the self-inductance of the unbalanced coil
and M is the mutual inductance between the two
coils. As (2) shows, by properly choosing the tail capac-
the IF signal. We proposed a new balun structure, itor, the center frequency of the balun can be greatly
as shown in Figure 2(b). In this balun, we added a lowered. In other words, if the working frequency ~ 0
tail capacitor C tail at the end of the unbalanced coil. is fixed, the proposed tail capacitor can reduce L s. For
In contrast to the traditional structure, the length of a spiral Marchand balun, a smaller inductance means
the unbalanced coil is less than m/2. The center of the coil’s length is reduced as well. A special case is
the balanced coil (P4) is a short to ground in the LO when the end of the unbalanced coil is open; in this

λ /2 <λ /2 Ctail
P1 O/C P1
P2 P3 P2 P3
λ /4 λ /4 <λ /4 <λ /4
(P4) (P4)

Ctail
P1 O/C P1

P2 P3 P2 P3
(a) (b)

Imbalanced Coil Balanced Coil

Figure 2. The layout of a Marchand balun: (a) the traditional structure and (b) the proposed structure with a tail capacitor.

0 0 0 0

–5 –40 –5 –40
Phase Difference (°)

Phase Difference (°)

S Parameter (dB)

S Parameter (dB)

–10 –80 –10 –80

S (2,1)
–15 –120 –15 S (2,1) –120
S (3,1)
S (3,1)
–20 –160 –20 –160

–25 –200 –25 –200

–30 –240 –30 –240

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Frequency (GHz) Frequency (GHz)
(a) (b)

Figure 3. The simulated S-parameter of the balun: (a) the traditional balun with the unbalanced coil end open and (b) the
balun with C tail .

108 January/February 2018

 0 330 0 60

–5 270 –5 50

Phase Difference (°)

Phase Difference (°)

S Parameter (dB)

S Parameter (dB)
40
–10 210 –10
S (4,2)
S (4,2) 30
–15 150 –15 S (4,3)
S (4,3) 20
–20 90 –20
10
–25 30 –25 0
–30 –30 –30 –10
0 4 8 12 16 20 0 4 8 12 16 20
Frequency (GHz) Frequency (GHz)
(a) (b)

Figure 4. The IF bandwidth simulation results for the baluns: (a) a traditional balun and (b) the proposed balun.

case, C tail is 0, and the working condition returns to the
traditional case, shown in Figure 2(a).
As a proof of concept, S-parameter simulations were
carried out: the results for the Marchand balun with and
without a tail capacitor are shown in Figure 3. Commercial
ADS software by Keysight and a WIN Foundry 150-nm
GaAs technology model were used for the simulations.
In the simulations, ports P1 and P3 are all terminated by
50-Ω loads while port P4 is an ideal short to ground.
Port definitions are shown in Figure 2. The simulated
balun’s dimensions are as follows: the lengths of the
unbalanced and balanced coils are 2,170 and 1,080 nm,
respectively, and the width of every coil line is 5 nm.
The space between two coil lines is 7 nm.
Comparing these two simulation results shows that
the tail capacitor shifts the effective working frequency
from 32 to 10 GHz, while maintaining relatively good
phase and amplitude performance. Because the bal-
un’s size is inversely proportional to frequency, it can
also be said that this tail capacitor reduces the balun’s
coil length at a fixed frequency.
Besides the reduction of chip size, the main func-
tion of the tail capacitor is to extend the IF bandwidth.
In an RF balun, a bypass parallel capacitor C IF is usu-
ally added at the IF output port to maintain the bal-
anced performance for the RF signal, as shown in
Figure 1. For our Marchand balun, the self-inductance
L s /2 between port P4 and ports P2, P3 is the main
parameter that blocks the IF signals. Together with
C IF, a resistor-capacitor low-pass filter with corner
frequency ~ c exhibits a corner frequency that can be
calculated as
the parallel capacitor, so its low-pass performance can-
not be eliminated.
To prove the preceding theory, S-parameter simulation
results between port P4 and ports P2, P3 are shown in Fig-
ure 4. In this simulation, all four ports are terminated by
50 X, and C IF is 1 pF. Figure 4(a) shows the simulation
results of a traditional balun, while Figure 4(b) illustrates
that of the proposed balun. This traditional balun has
larger dimensions than the one proposed so that both bal-
uns have the same RF frequency.
As Figure 4(a) indicates, for a traditional balun,
the effective IF bandwidth is less than 1 GHz, and the
phase difference is quite far from 0° in the high-fre-
quency region. In contrast, Figure 4(b) shows that the
IF bandwidth of the proposed balun extends to 7 GHz
with lower than 4-dB insertion loss, and the phase
difference is less than 10° over the entire bandwidth
from 0 to 14 GHz. Comparing these two results, it is
quite clear that the proposed tail capacitor can indeed
improve the IF bandwidth for baluns working at the
same frequency.

~c =
1 . (3)
L s $ C IF
2

As (3) shows, because the proposed tail capaci-

tor reduces L s, the IF bandwidth can be extended. It
should be stressed that the filter is not added purpose-
fully but rather naturally by the self-inductance and Figure 5. A photograph of the implemented mixer.

January/February 2018 109

Although a 0-Hz IF signal size is 950 × 600 nm 2, including all pads. According to
the competition requirements, the mixer was to be sol-
measurement was not made because dered onto a printed circuit board, with all ports con-
of test condition restrictions, the nected by bond wires. The measurement results were
mixer should be able to provide a obtained from on-chip experiments conducted using a
probe station.
dc IF output. The simulated and measured conversion loss ver-
sus RF frequency is shown in Figure 6(a). The RF
frequency ranges from 5 to 19 GHz, while the IF fre-
Measurement Results quency is fixed at 0.1 GHz. The injected LO power is
Based on the procedure discussed in the previous sec- 13 dBm. From the figure, we can see that the measured
tions, a passive double-balanced mixer was designed conversion loss is lower than 10 dB from 6–18 GHz.
and fabricated. A photograph of the proposed mixer The fractional bandwidth is 100%. The proposed cir-
is shown in Figure 5. The size of balun is the same cuit therefore exhibits very wide RF bandwidth per-
as the simulated one mentioned earlier. The width of formance. For the competition’s requested bandwidth
each diode in the ring is 2 nm × 20 nm. The total chip of 10–11 GHz, the conversion loss is lower than 8 dB.

Measured Simulated LO–IF RF–IF LO–RF

–5 0

–7 –10
Conversion Gain (dB)

–9
–20
Isolation (dB)

–11
–30
–13
–40
–15

–50
–17

–19 –60
5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19
RF Frequency (GHz) RF Frequency (GHz)
(a) (b)

0 –7.0
Conversion Gain (dB)

Conversion Gain (dB)

–5 –7.5

–10 –8.0

–15 –8.5

–20 –9.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 –15 –11 –7 –3 1 5 9 13
IF Frequency (GHz) Input Power (dBm)
(c) (d)

Figure 6. The measured performances of the implemented mixer: the (a) conversion loss, (b) isolation, (c) IF bandwidth, and
(d) conversion loss versus input power.

110 January/February 2018

 Table 1. A summary of the measurements of the implemented mixer.
Competition Rules Implemented Design
RF frequency (GHz) 10–11 10–11
IF frequency (GHz) 1 5
LO power (dBm) ≤13 +13
Conversion loss (dB) ≤8 7.0
Noise figure (dB) ≤9 ≈7
IIP3 (dBm) ≥19 +19.5
P1dB, in (dBm) ≥10 ≥12
LO–RF Isolation (dB) ≥30 50
Size (in ) 3
≤2 × 2 × 0.5 0.038 × 0.024 ×
0.004
dc power (mW) 0 0
FOM 17.5
The measured isolation performance is shown in
Figure 6(b). The test condition is the same as with the
conversion loss measurement. The RF–IF isolation
is better than 20 dB. Compared with the RF–IF isola-
tion, the LO–IF isolation is much greater because the
LO signal always has a higher power level. As shown
in Figure 6, the measured LO–IF signal isolation is
better than 28 dB, and the LO–RF isolation is bet-
ter than 30 dB over the entire RF bandwidth. In the
competition’s requested bandwidth of 10–11 GHz,
the LO–RF isolation is better than 50 dB.
Figure 6(c) shows the measured IF bandwidth
characteristic. The LO frequency varied from 10 to
17.9 GHz, while the RF frequency was fixed at 18 GHz.
The injected LO power was 13 dBm. The measurement
results show that the mixer has a very wide IF band-
width, from 0.1 to 8 GHz, with a conversion loss of
lower than 10 dB. Note that, for the 18-GHz RF signal,
the theoretical maximum IF bandwidth is 9 GHz; oth-
erwise, the LO leakage and IF signal will overlap, and
an accurate measurement is impossible. This IF band-
width reaches nearly the theoretical maximum value
for a double-balanced mixer. Although a 0-Hz IF sig-
nal measurement was not made because of test condi-
tion restrictions, the mixer should be able to provide a
dc IF output.
Figure 6(d) shows the measured 1-dB compression
(P1dB) performance. The P1dB was measured at 1-GHz
RF and 0.1-GHz IF frequencies. The injected LO power
was 13 dBm. As the figure shows, the input P1dB is
better than 12 dBm. According to the relationship
between P1dB and input IP3 (IIP3), IIP3 is approxi-
mately 21 dBm.
Table 1 summarizes the performance of the imp­
lemented mixer and shows that, in the competi-
tion frequency range, all specifications are satisfied.
Additionally, the mixer’s working
frequency was extended beyond
that of the competition specifica-
6–18 tions so that it could meet diverse
8 application requirements.
≤13
Conclusions
≤10 Here, we have presented a dou-
≤11 ble-balanced passive mixer with
a new Marchand balun structure.
≥12
A tail capacitor was introduced to
reduce the chip size, which also
≥30
provided very wide IF bandwidth
0.038 × 0.024 × performance. The measurement
0.004
results indicate that the proposed
0 mixer has low conversion loss,
wide IF and RF bandwidths, high
linearity, small chip size, and high
isolation. In the competition fre-
quency region, all design specifi-
cations were satisfied, and the FOM was determined to
be 17.5, the highest among all the competitors.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 61474020)
and in part by the National Key Project of Science
and Technology.
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