Low cost coplanar 77 GHz single-balanced mixer using ion-implanted GaAs Schottky diodes

A W-band single-balanced mixer and W-band LO amplifier, suitable for automotive collision-avoidance radar, have been designed and fabricated using a 0.18 /spl mu/m direct ion-implanted GaAs MESFET process developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As a downconverter with an LO frequency of 77 GHz and an RF frequency of 77.1 GHz, the coplanar rat-race mixer achieves a conversion loss of 14.7 dB at an LO power of +3.5 dBm. The coplanar LO amplifier exhibits 5 dB of gain over a 4 GHz bandwidth centered at 77 GHz.