An Image Reject Mixer for High-Speed E-Band (71-76, 81-86 GHz) Wireless Communication

In this paper, the design and characterization of a broadband image reject mixer for the next generation of point to-point microwave links is presented. The manufacturing has been made in a commercially available 0.15 mum gate length GaAs mHEMT technology. The measured performance demonstrates a conversion loss of 9 dB and an image rejection ratio of 25 dB on average across the full E-band (71-76 and 81-86 GHz). Performance peaks at 77 GHz with conversion loss of 7 dB and image rejection of 40 dB. Furthermore, these results have been achieved with a LO power requirement of 4 dBm. To the best of the authors' knowledge this is the first reported image reject mixer suitable for the full E-band.