A Dual-gate 60GHz Direct Up-conversion Mixer with Active IF Balun in 65nm CMOS

Michael Kraemer (1) , Daniela Dragomirescu (1) , Robert Plana (1)

1 LAAS-MINC - Équipe MIcro et Nanosystèmes pour les Communications sans fil

This paper presents a low-power balanced dual-gate direct up-converter for the unlicensed 60 GHz band. To the author's knowledge, the proposed architecture has never been used for a CMOS up-converter working in this band before. The maximum conversion gain achieved by the fabricated test circuit for PLO = 6dBm, fLO = 62GHz and fIF = 1GHz is -2.4 dB. Furthermore, a novel IF buffer topology with integrated broadband active balun has been proposed. It allows to test the mixer circuit using either a single-ended or differential IF signal. Future work will include the redesign of the RF buffer's matching networks as well as the direct connection of an on-chip differential VCO. These measures are expected to improve conversion gain and LO-to-IF isolation and lead to a better symmetry between upper and lower sidebands.

Mots clés: up-conversion mixer; 60GHz; CMOS 65nm

Domaines: Micro et nanotechnologies/Microélectronique

Michael Kraemer, Daniela Dragomirescu, Robert Plana. A Dual-gate 60GHz Direct Up-conversion Mixer with Active IF Balun in 65nm CMOS. International Conference on Wireless Information Technology and Systems (ICWITS 2010), Aug 2010, Honolulu, United States. 4p. ⟨hal-00591006⟩