A novel planar double-balanced 6-18 GHz MMIC mixer

A novel planar monolithic double-balanced mixer has been demonstrated which exhibits low conversion loss, good compression and isolation characteristics, and low spurious responses. This has been achieved for LO and RF signals in the 6 to 18 GHz frequency range with an IF bandwidth from DC to 2.5 GHz. It is fabricated using standard 0.5 /spl mu/m MESFET technology on ion-implanted low-noise, low-current GaAs material. Occupying a size of only 0.050/spl times/0.100/spl times/0.006 in. (1.27/spl times/2.54/spl times/0.15 mm), it is the smallest known planar double-balanced MMIC mixer to accomplish this level of performance.<>