Design of a broadband passive X-band double-balanced mixer in SiGe HBT technology

In this paper, a passive double-balanced mixer in SiGe HBT technology is presented. Owing to lack of suitable passive mixing elements in the technology, the mixing elements are formed by diode-connected HBTs. The mixer uses lumped element Marchand baluns on both the local oscillator (LO) and the radio frequency (RF) port. A break out of the Marchand balun is measured. This demonstrates good phase and magnitude match of 0.7° and 0.11 dB, respectively. The Marchand baluns are broadband with a measured 3 dB bandwidth of 6.4 GHz, while still having a magnitude imbalance better than 0.4 dB and a phase imbalance better than 5°. Unfortunately with a rather high loss of 2.5 dB, mainly due to the low Q-factor of the inductors used. The mixer is optimized for use in doppler radars and is highly linear with a 1 dB compression point above 12 dBm IIP2 of 66 dBm. The conversion gain at the center frequency of 8.5 GHz is −9.8 dB at an LO drive level of 15 dBm. The whole mixer is very broadband with 3 dB bandwidth from 7 to 12 GHz covering the entire X-band. The LO–IF, RF–IF, and RF–LO isolation is better than 46, 36, and 36 dB, respectively, in the entire band of operation.