A 60 GHz Monolithic Upconversion Mixer in SiGe HBT Technology

A 60 GHz monolithic upconversion mixer using a 0.25 mum SiGe-HBT technology with f_T and f_maxap200 GHz is demonstrated in this work. The mixer is based on the Gilbert micromixer principle. It has broadband matched single-ended IF and LO inputs. An active LO balun is implemented on-chip to convert the single-ended LO signal into a differential one for driving the Gilbert cell. A shorted stub is inserted to the current source of the balun to improve the common mode rejection. A push-pull balun is used to convert the differential output into a single-ended one. Thus, the IF, LO and RF ports are single-ended facilitating the on-wafer measurements. At 0 dBm applied LO power the fully integrated upconversion micro mixer has a conversion gain of -6.5 dB and 0 dBm of input power under 1 dB gain compression where IF, LO and RF frequencies are at 5 GHz, 55 GHz and 60 GHz. Supply voltage and current consumption were 3.3 V and 24 mA, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported highly linear 60 GHz upconversion micromixer in SiGe-HBT technology.