A Ka-band double balanced upconverter MMIC for space application

This paper describes a novel compact double balanced upconverter MMIC architecture, which exhibits high conversion gain, good isolation and low spurious responses. The MMIC is realized using a space qualified 0.13μm MHEMT foundry process and is used for the development of Ku to Ka-band upconverter subsystem for on-board applications. It demonstrates a conversion gain of better than 15dB for IF frequency ranges of 12.75-13.25GHz with 8dBm LO drives at 5.35 & 6.95GHz. Six sub-circuits named IF amplifier, IF balun, Quad cold MHEMT mixing cell, LO balun, RF balun & RF amplifier are integrated on a single chip size of 3.7mm × 3mm to get a complete double balanced upconverter. This is the first demonstration of a monolithic MHEMT double balanced upconverter including on-chip IF & RF amplifiers in this frequency range.