A Wideband 60 GHz Gm-Boosted Up-Conversion Mixer

Cheol So; Song Cheol Hong

doi:10.23075/jicas.2023.9.2.005

Cheol So Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
Song Cheol Hong Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23075/jicas.2023.9.2.005

Keywords: Current-bleeding, Feedback resistor, Gm-boosting, PMOS, Up-conversion mixer

Abstract

In this paper, a wideband gm-boosted up-conversion mixer is presented, which is fabricated in 28-nm bulk CMOS process. It adopts a double-balanced structure for high isolation characteristics. The circuit employs a current bleeding path through PMOS to enhance the gm, resulting in a high conversion gain. The feedback resistor R enables impedance matching without an additional impedance matching network while providing wideband characteristics in the baseband. Furthermore, the symmetrical layout of the switching stage cells improves the LO to RF isolation performance. The measured peak conversion gain is 3.2 dB, and the 3-dB frequency bandwidth is more than 6 GHz. The power consumption is 6.38 mW at 1.1 V supply voltage. The chip size, including the pads, is 0.53 x 0.42 mm² and the core area is 0.2 x 0.26 mm².

Author Biographies

Cheol So, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Cheol So received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, South Korea, in 2015 and 2017, respectively, where he is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering. His current research interests include millimeter-wave integrated circuits and systems in silicon technologies and multiple-in-multiple-out (MIMO) and phased array for radars and wireless communications.

Song Cheol Hong, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Song Cheol Hong received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electronics engineering from Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea, in 1982 and 1984, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, in 1989. He visited the EECS Department, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA, as a Visiting Professor in 1997. He was with Samsung Microwave Semiconductor, Milpitas, CA, USA. He served as the Dean of research affairs and the Director of KI-IT convergence with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, South Korea, where he is currently a Professor with the School of Electrical Engineering and a KT-Chaired Professor. He has authored or coauthored more than 300 technical articles and holds 150 patents. His current research interests include RFICs and RF CMOS PAs and especially in millimeter-wave ICs for 5G communications and radars. Dr. Hong is currently a member of NAEK, KIEES, and KITE. He has served as a Board Member of Techno-Park of Daejeon Metropolitan city. He served as the General Chair for RFIT 2017 supported by the IEEE and the TPC Chair for APMC 2013 and GSMM 2014.