24-GHz 1-V pseudo-stacked mixer with gain-boosting technique

Design techniques for a low-power mixer operating in the quasi-millimeter-wave frequency region were developed. A pseudo-stacked configuration and a pre-biasing technique, to reduce supply voltage and dynamic current consumption, respectively, were introduced. Furthermore, a gain-boosting technique, which actively utilizes a parasitic resonant caused by a transformer and parasitic capacitor, improves the power efficiency of the mixer. The proposed mixer fabricated by 0.18-mum SiGe BiCMOS technology achieves a conversion gain of 4.8 dB and NF of 10.4 dB at 1-V power supply. These performance results indicate that these design techniques are suitable for implementing low-power receivers for the quasi-millimeter-wave frequency region.