A Compact V-Band Upconversion Mixer With −1.4-dBm OP1dB in SiGe HBT Technology

This letter presents a compact and linear V-band upconverting double-balanced Gilbert cell mixer implemented in a 0.13-μm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The detailed design procedure for the on-chip transformer baluns is provided, which enables the compact implementation. The mixer occupies an area of 365 μm × 400 μm with pads and 175 μm × 300 μm without pads, consuming 52 mW from a 2.5-V power supply. The mixer achieves an OP1dB of -1.4 dBm at 60-GHz radio frequency, intermediate frequency (IF) bandwidth of 0.5-8.5 GHz on both sidebands, a maximum conversion gain of 13.4 dB, and a 3-dB bandwidth of 50 to above 67 GHz. The performance of the proposed mixer outperforms other state-of-the-art V-band mixers in terms of chip area, IF bandwidth, and linearity.