Direct Carrier Six-Port Modulator Using a Technique to Suppress Carrier Leakage

This paper presents a direct carrier six-port modulator. To allow arbitrary load impedances to be used and for suppression of carrier leakage, a new circuit architecture with a technique to suppress carrier leakage is proposed and implemented. A theoretical model of the proposed modulator is derived. A prototype modulator utilizing diodes for impedance generation is designed and fabricated for a center frequency of 7.5 GHz for verification of the proposed technique. Measurements show good modulation properties when a 16 quadrature amplitude modulation signal at 100 Msymbol/s is generated, as well as good carrier leakage suppression.