Broadband integrated millimeter-wave up- and down-converter GaAs MMICs

The architecture and design of broadband, highly integrated up- and down-converters in GaAs pHEMT technology is described. Two up-converters and two down-converters have been designed to reduce the complexity and cost of broadband millimeter-wave systems by integrating a number of functions into compact MMICs. Broadband performance was achieved for approximately 17-35GHz (low band) and 30-45 GHz (high band) with up-conversion input-referred,third-order intercept point exceeding 12 and 10 dBm, respectively, with good 2× local oscillator leakage and excellent gain control. To the best of the authors´ knowledge,this is the highest level of integration achieved for up- and down-converters at these frequencies.