24–40 GHz Dual-Band Highly Linear CMOS Up-Conversion Mixer for mmWave 5G NR FR2 Cellular Applications

This work presents a dual-band complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) up-conversion mixer that operates in the frequency range of 24.25–40 GHz. To realize highly linear characteristics at both the 28- and 39-GHz bands, the proposed design uses the single-stacked transistor configuration as well as band-switchable inductor and transformer loads. The up-conversion mixer comprises an intermediate frequency (IF) transconductance, a switching, and a radio frequency (RF) stage. Mixer switches are driven by three-stage local oscillator (LO) buffers. The design is fabricated in a 40-nm CMOS process and shows conversion gains exceeding 3.7 and 0.8 dB, output 1-dB compression points (OP1dBs) exceeding −1 and −0.2 dBm, and output 3rd-order intercept points (OIP3s) exceeding 9.2 and 3.8 dBm for 28 and 39 GHz bands, respectively. The implemented mixer consumes a bias current of 22.1 mA with a 1.1-V supply. The active area excluding bonding pads is 0.59 mm
²
.