Third-order intermodulation distortion characteristics of millimeter-wave self-heterodyne transmission techniques

We present the third-order intermodulation distortion characteristics (IMD3) of millimeter-wave self heterodyne transmission techniques for the applications of multi-channel analog signal transmission. Since local oscillator (LO) carriers are simultaneously injected to the receiver together with RF signals, the power balance between LO and RF is a key parameter to determine nonlinear characteristics of self heterodyne down-conversion mixer although the equal power balancing is theoretically optimum condition for the highest carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR). We observe higher LO power ratio gives us the better suppression of IMD3 in frequency down-conversion process and clarify its dependence on total RF received power.