Mixers

Why study mixers?

• Receivers
– up or down conversion
– demodulation of SC SSB or SC DSB
– input must support large dynamic range
– AGC
• Transmitters
– up conversion
– modulation: amplitude and phase
– input has optimum signal level for high performance
Superheterodyne receiver
3 Important Frequencies in Heterodyne RX
• RF Radio Frequency. The center frequency the signal is broadcast on.

• IF Intermediate Frequency. Fixed frequency inside the RX. The RF

signal is down converted to this frequency.

• LO Local Oscillator. Tunable frequency inside the RX used to translate

the RF signal to the IF frequency
Mixing principle
• Mixers perform two functions: down-conversion and up-conversion.
Down-conversion mixers, or down-converters
• RF receivers convert an RF input signal, through mixing with a local
oscillator (LO) signal in nonlinear mixing elements, to a signal at the
difference or intermediate frequency (IF)
Heterodyne
Upconverters
• Up-conversion mixers, or up-
converters, convert a signal into
a higher frequency signal
through mixing with an LO signal
and find applications in
transmitters
Down-conversion mixers, or down-
converters
• Convert an RF input signal,
through mixing with a local
oscillator (LO) signal in nonlinear
mixing elements, to a signal at
the difference or intermediate
frequency (IF)
 Mixer Fundamentals
• from Fourier transform theory, the Fourier transform of the productbetween
a signal x(t), whose Fourier transform is X(f), and a complex function is
• The resultant spectrum of the product indicates that the frequency f of a
signal can be transformed into another frequency by multiplying the signal
with a pure complex (exponential) signal of frequency .
• Consider two signals with maximum amplitudes and
Mixer continued
• General mixer block, which
contains three ports: RF, LO, and
IF.
• The RF and LO ports are used to
feed signals at RF and LO
frequencies, respectively, to the
active devices, herein assumed
to be MOSFETs, in the mixer, and
the IF output port is used to
extract the output signal at IF
frequency.
 Side bands
• The sum and difference frequencies at are called the sidebands of the carrier
frequency
• being the upper sideband (USB), and being the lower sideband (LSB).
• A double-sideband (DSB) signal contains both upper and lower sidebands, ,
while a single-sideband (SSB) signal can be produced by filtering or by using a
single-sideband mixer.
• The RF output is seen to consist of the sum and differences of the input signal
frequencies:

• single-sideband (SSB) signal can be produced by filtering or by using a

single-sideband mixer.
Mixer Parameters
Conversion Gain
Noise Figure
Isolation
Linearity
 1-dB power compression
 Third-Order Intermodulation
 Intercept Point
Image frequency
Heterodyning doesn’t select one
frequency, it selects two.
The two frequencies are mirrored
about the LO, hence the term Image
Frequency.
The primary purpose of the RF filter is
to reject any signal that might be
present on the image frequency
 Image frequency
• In a receiver the RF input signal at frequency is typically delivered
from the antenna, which may receive RF signals over a relatively wide band of
frequencies.
• For a receiver with an LO frequency and IF frequency ,
gives the RF input frequency that will be down-converted to the IF frequency as

• Image frequency
 Conversion gain/loss
• The ratio of available RF input power to the available IF output power,
expressed in dB:

• Conversion loss accounts for resistive losses in a mixer as well as loss in the
frequency conversion process from RF to IF ports.
• Conversion loss applies to both up-conversion and down-conversion, even
though the context of the above definition is for the latter case.
Conversion Gain/Loss
 Noise figure:
• Noise is generated in mixers by the diode or transistor elements, and by
thermal sources due to resistive losses.
• Noise figures of practical mixers range from 1 to 5 dB, with diode mixers
generally achieving lower noise figures than transistor mixers.
Noise figure:
Linearity:
Question
• The IS-54 digital cellular telephone system uses a receive frequency
band of 869– 894 MHz, with a first IF frequency of 87 MHz and a
channel bandwidth of 30 kHz. What are the two possible ranges for
the LO frequency? If the upper LO frequency range is used, determine
the image frequency range. Does the image frequency fall within the
receive passband?
Solution
• The two possible LO frequency ranges are:

Using 956-981 MHz LO,

=

• the RF image frequency range is :

Above the passband

Mixer Implementation Using Non-Linearity
Mixer Implementation Using Non-Linearity
Mixer Implementation: Using Switching Devices
Types of Mixers:
• Single-Ended Diode Mixer
• Single-Ended FET Mixer
• Balanced Mixer
• Image Reject Mixer
• Differential FET Mixer and Gilbert Cell Mixer
Mixer Fundamentals: Summary