A 10GHz 2.8dB gain passive mixer in 0.18um CMOS technology

In this paper, a 10GHz high conversion gain (normally passive mixer is loss) passive mixer is proposed. By proper sizing of LO switches and matching network, the mixer is implemented in standard 0.18 µm CMOS technology. The mixer down-converts a 10 GHz RF frequency to an IF frequency of 1 GHz. An LO power of 0dBm is required to obtain a maximum conversion gain of 2.8dB. It is therefore possible to use the proposed mixer in a receiver without a LNA, a popular architecture in today's ultra low power communication systems.