Sub-Milliwatt DC Power Double Balanced Down Mixer and Subharmonic Phase Detector for L-Band Applications

A very low power double balanced mixer with a conversion gain of 17 dB at 1 GHz has been designed. It consists of a common gate input buffer, a Gilbert cell and a source follower output buffer and has a DC power consumption of less than 0.6 mW. Additionally an L-band phase detect of with an ultra low DC power consumption of less than 150 ¿W, an output voltage slope of 7.4 mV/degree and the capability of subharmonic phase detection down to the 25th subharmonic is presented. These low power circuits are fully differential and run from a single 2.7 V power supply.