A Low-Noise and High-Gain Folded Mixer for a UWB System in 0.18-μm SiGe Bi-CMOS Technology

This brief presents a low voltage folded-switching ultra-wideband down-conversion mixer in TSMC 0.18 μm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The transconductance stage uses BJT (HBT) transistors to improve the conversion gain. The switching stage uses a CMOS inverter that is switched to reduce the supply voltage and the dc power consumption. The design technology for the mixer combines the advantages of BJT (HBT) and CMOS. The results show a conversion gain of 8.8~17.1 dB, ranging from 3 GHz to 11 GHz, a single-ended noise figure from 12.8 dB to 16.56 dB, an input return loss of less than -8 dB and LO-to-RF isolation that is better than -32 dB. The IIP3 is 0 dBm at 3 GHz. The total dc power consumption from a 1V supply voltage with output buffers is 3.45 mW.