Low conversion-loss fourth subharmonic mixers incorporating CMRC for millimeter-wave applications

Abstract

Low conversion-loss millimeter-wave fourth sub-harmonic (SH) mixer designs are proposed in this paper. A millimeter-wave (35 GHz) fourth SH mixers with four open/shorted stubs is designed and measured. The conversion loss is less than 15 dB within a 2.4-GHz bandwidth. The minimum loss is 11.5 dB at the center frequency. By replacing two of the shunt stubs with a dual-frequency in-line stub consisting of newly developed compact microstrip resonating cells (CMRCs), the performance of the SH mixer is improved significantly. At 35 GHz, the conversion loss of this new fourth SH mixer is as low as 6.1 dB with a 3-dB bandwidth of 6 GHz. The conversion loss in the whole K a-band (26.5-40 GHz) is less than 16 dB. The proposed fourth SH mixer incorporating with CMRCs provides a low-cost high-performance solution for RF subsystem design.