W-band GaN Resistive FET I-Q Mixer MMICs with Low Conversion Loss

This paper presents a single-balanced resistive FET (RFET) MMIC downconvert mixers using HRL Laboratories 40nm T3 GaN HEMT process operating in a single-ended and I-Q modes. MMIC size is 2.5mm X 2.5mm. The mixer operates at W-band with the RF frequency ranging from 92-96 GHz and Local Oscillator (LO) frequency from 86-95 GHz. The Conversion Loss (CL) measured in an image reject mode is 8dB across the band, P1dB is >20.3dBm and the IIP3 is 28dBm. The LO-RF isolation is in the 13dB range. I-Q phase imbalance is 8 degrees on average. To our knowledge, this is the lowest CL achieved at W-band for a GaN RFET Mixer.