High conversion gain V-band quadruple subharmonic mixer using cascode structure

In this paper, we present V-band high conversion gain quadruple subharmonic mixers adopting the cascode structure. The subharmonic mixers were successfully integrated by using 0.1 /spl mu/m GaAs PHEMTs and the coplanar waveguide structures. We show that the highest conversion gain of 3.4 dB thus far at a LO power of 13 dBm from the fabricated mixers. The millimeter-wave subharmonic mixer also ensure a high degree of isolation showing -53.6 dB in the LO-to-IF and -46.2 dB in the LO-to-RF, respectively, at a frequency of 14.5 GHz. The high conversion gain achieved in this work is the first report among the millimeter-wave monolithic IC subharmonic mixers.