A monolithic 94 GHz balanced mixer

On the basis of a recently developed GaAs technology that allows the realization of millimeter-wave Schottky mixer diodes and MESFETs on the same monolithic chip, 94-GHz monolithic mixers have been fabricated. The Schottky diodes show cutoff frequencies of up to 2.3 THz, whereas MESFETs with typical F/sub max/ (MAG=1) of about 90 GHz have been measured. The mixer chips show conversion losses of less than 8 dB combined with noise figures below 6 dB (DSB); the best values are a conversion loss of 7.5 dB with an associated noise figure of 4.0 dB (DSB) in self bias operation. The associated LO power consumption was 5 dBm. The technology allows the integration and mass production of several key components on one chip, which are necessary for millimeter-wave receiver frontends.<
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