Wideband monolithic microwave integrated circuit frequency converters with GaAs mHEMT technology

We present monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) frequency converter, which can be used for up and down conversion, due to the large RF and IF port bandwidth. The MMIC converters are based on commercially available GaAs mHEMT technology and are comprised of a Gilbert mixer cell core, baluns and combiners. Single ended and balanced configurations DC and AC coupled have been investigated. The instantaneous 3 dB bandwidth at both the RF and the IF port of the frequency converters is /spl sim/ 20 GHz with excellent amplitude and phase linearity. The predicted conversion gain is around 10 dB. Simulated results are supported by experimental characterization. Good agreement is found between simulations and experiment is found after adjustment of technology parameters.