A Highly Linear (40.5 - 43.5) GHz MMIC Single Balanced pHEMT Resistive Up-Converter Mixer for LMDS Applications

This paper presents the design and performance of a highly linear (40.5- 43.5) GHz MMIC single balanced pHEMT resistive up-converter mixer dedicated to LMDS applications. The mixer achieves good performance in terms of conversion loss which is about 6-7 dB and LO/RF isolation that is better than 30 dB under LO power equal to 14 dBm. The main feature of the mixer is its high linearity since it presents an RF output power @1 dB compression point (Pout@ 1dB) superior to 5 dBm in the (39.5-43.5) GHz frequency range. The measured OIP3 is equal to 20.2 dBm at 40.5 GHz and 12.2 dBm at 42 GHz. The 2 mmtimes1.5 mm circuit was fabricated using the D01PH (0.13 mum GaAs depletion mode pHEMT) process provided by the OMMIC foundry. To the best of our knowledge, this is the most linear up-converter mixer reported to date in this frequency range associated with as low conversion loss.