A 60 GHz CMOS balanced downconversion mixer with a layout efficient 90° hybrid coupler

This paper presents the design and realization of a downconversion mixer fabricated in a standard 130 nm commercial CMOS process and aimed at applications in the 60 GHz ISM band. A balanced mixer configuration was implemented using a layout efficient 90deg hybrid coupler which serves as a diplexer to inject the LO signal while also providing two outputs with 3 dB of attenuation and 90deg phase shift. The mixer achieves a conversion gain of +0.3 dB and an OIP3 of +2.3 dBm. The mixer also consumes 200 muA of DC current and 8 mA of peak current while driven from a single 2 V supply. The layout area, including test pads, is 1.4 mm times 1.0 mm.