V-band GaAs low LO power driven double-balanced Gilbert mixer based on dual-meandering baluns design

A low local oscillator (LO)-power, V-Band MMIC down-conversion, double-balanced Gilbert mixer with integrated RF and LO baluns is designed and fabricated using standard 0.15-μm pHEMT MMIC technology and characterized using probe measurements. There is a high conversion gain at a low-LO power level. This enables the proposed "current bleeding resistor divider voltage" technique, also provided in the Gilbert-cell mixer, to boost the conversion gain at a low-LO power level. The greatest conversion gain is from 5.17 to 1.41 dB at an RF frequency 53-60 GHz, and a Pub of -9.5 dBm at an LO input power of -7 dBm. Both RF-LO and LO-RF isolations are better than 25 dB. This is believed to be the lowest-LO power and highest conversion gain so far achieved for V-band mixers.