Silicon bipolar balanced active mixer MMIC´s for RF and microwave applications up to 6 GHz

A monolithic silicon bipolar technology based on transistors with f/sub T/s of 10 GHz and f/sub max/s of 20 GHz has been used to develop double balanced active mixers. These circuits are based on Gilbert cell multipliers and exhibit conversion gain for RF and LO (local oscillator) bandwidths to 6 GHz and IF (intermediate frequency) bandwidths to 2 GHz. The mixers have conversion gains of up to 16 dB with exceptionally low LO power requirements. Load-insensitive performance is achieved along with wideband on-chip impedance matching. Small chip size is obtained with low to moderate power dissipations. Dynamic range, however, is partially sacrificed due to the fundamental circuit topology chosen. RF measurements for two representative designs are summarized.<>