An E-mode GaAs FET operating as a single balanced gate mixer

The objective of this paper is to describe the design details of a semi-monolithic single balanced gate mixer for DBS applications. In order to obtain a low noise figure and high conversion gain it was decided to employ enhancement mode MESFETs, thus avoiding the need for a negative supply. The nonlinear modeling is briefly described and contributed to the success of the mixer performance. An SSB noise figure of 6.0 dB was measured from 10.7 to 11.8 GHz with a conversion gain of 7.0 dB +/- 1.0 dB, with only +3.0 dBm of LO power. The third order intercept point is equal to +13.0 dBm, adequate for LNB applications.