A K-band SiGe BiCMOS fully integrated up-conversion mixer

The design of a fully integrated 0.18-μm SiGe BiCMOS up-conversion mixer in K-band is presented. The mixer consists of a single-ended-to-differential active balun, double-balanced Gilber mixer cell, differential amplifier and band pass filter. The input active balun is used to facilitate on-wafer characterization from a single-ended IF signal. With an LO power of −2 dBm, the mixer exhibits a conversion gain of 25.7 dB, 1-dB input power of −23 dBm, 1-dB output power of 1.36 dBm, and maximum output power of 2.7 dBm at 24.5 GHz, while consuming a DC current of 40 mA from a supply voltage of 1.8V. Design procedure, parameter trade-off, simulation, and layout issues of the mixer are discussed.