High Conversion Gain Up-Converter with +5 dBm OP1dB in InP DHBT Technology for Ultra Capacity Wireless Applications

A fundamental frequency up-converter for ultra-capacity wireless applications with high conversion gain is presented, realized as double-balanced Gilbert cell mixer using an 800 nm transferred substrate (TS) InP-DHBT technology. The local oscillator (LO) input of the mixer operates from 96 to 110 GHz and requires an input power of 6 dBm. The up converter achieves a single sideband (SSB) peak conversion gain of 17 dB at 145 GHz and > 10 dB in the frequency range 141–149 GHz. It reaches a high output P
1dB
(OP
1dB
) of more than +5 dBm, which assures a high dynamic range of the communication system. The up-converter offers an intermediate frequency (IF) bandwidth of more than 10 GHz in the Q-band, at a DC consumption of only 25 mW. The high IF frequency allows to reuse existing and commercial wireless systems at mm-wave frequencies up to 60 GHz. To the knowledge of the authors, this is the highest conversion gain and OP
1dB
published for an up-converted frequency beyond 100 GHz.