A 110–170-GHz Multi-Mode Transconductance Mixer in 250-nm InP DHBT Technology.

A novel full D-band (110–170 GHz) multi-mode transconductance down-converter mixer is realized in a 250-nm indium–phosphide double heterojunction bipolar transistor technology. A single-balanced topology is chosen and an active power combiner for the RF and the local oscillator (LO) signals’ combination is used. The designed mixer is feasible to work at \, \times \,1, \, \times \,2, \, \times \,3, \, \times \,4 subharmonically LO-pumped mixing modes with relatively low LO powers of 0, -\1, 5, and 6 dBm, respectively. The measured conversion gain achieves typical values of -\3, -\1, -\5, and -\4 dB over the full D-band while the best noise figures of 12, 13.5, 18.5, and 19 dB are obtained, respectively. Through the multi-mode operation in terms of subharmonic LO-pump-frequency, the designer can make a tradeoff between LO frequency, LO power, and noise figure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]