2.4 GHz 0.18µm CMOS passive mixer with integrated baluns

A 2.4 GHz resistive ring mixer with on-chip baluns is fully integrated in 0.18 mum IBM7HP process. This mixer exhibits broadband RF impedance matching with return loss better than -10 dB through the RF frequency range from 2 to 6 GHz. The conversion loss of 7.8 dB is achieved at the RF frequency 2.4 GHz. This mixer provides 6 dBm of the input P1dB, and 13.4 dBm of the input IP3 at the operating RF frequency. This mixer is the first reported double-balanced resistive mixer with integrated RF and LO baluns. This mixer has a very compact layout due to the absence of the matching circuits, and is suitable for homodyne and heterodyne transceiver architectures for wireless applications.