A new compact V-band six-port receiver for high data-rate wireless applications

This paper presents a new V-band six-port receiver front-end fabricated on Miniature Hybrid Microwave Integrated Circuit (MHMIC) technology. Beside the antenna array, the receiver front-end includes a low noise amplifier (LNA), a six-port interferometer, and four RF power detectors. The performance of the novel six-port circuit is tested using on-wafer S-parameter measurements. The measurements clearly prove excellent amplitude and phase balance over the frequency band, while preserving good isolation and return losses at all ports. A six-port circuit computer model is implemented using all required two-port S-parameter measurements. The simulation results using this model validate the circuit performances as a quadrature down-converter. Therefore, the proposed six-port is an excellent candidate for V-band high data-rate communications, using either PSK or QAM modulations.