Low-Cost Downconverter for UK Demonstration of TV Distribution by Milumetre-Waves

Five receiver downconverters have been produced, tested and deployed for a demonstration of TV distribution by millimetre-waves. Input signals in the 29GHz band are downconverted to 0.95-1.75GHz, and fed via a coaxial downlead to a DBS-compatible indoor demodulation unit. Monolithic Millimetre-Wave IC (MMWIC) technology has been chosen to meet the low cost targets for the system, and this downconverter is an initial demonstration vehicle for this technology. Conversion gains and noise figures of the five downconverters were in the range 30 to 38dB and 12 to 16dB, respectively.