Comparison of 6 Diode and 6 Transistor Mixers Based on Analysis and Measurement

Abstract

Our goal is to overview semiconductor mixers designed for good large signal performance. Twelve different mixers were compared utilizing pn diodes, bipolar transistors, and/or junction field effect transistors. The main aspect of comparison is the third-order intercept point (IP3), and both circuit analysis and measurement results have been considered. IP3 has been analyzed by the program AWR (NI AWR Design Environment) and measured by two-tone test (Keysight Technologies). We provide three ways of improvement of large signal performance: application of a diplexer at the RF port, reduction of DC currents, and exploiting a region of RF input power with infinite IP3. In addition to that, our contributions are several modifications of existing mixers and a new mixer circuit (as illustrated in the figures). It is widely believed that the slope of the third-order intermodulation product versus input power is always greater than that of the first-order product. However, measurement and analysis revealed (as illustrated in the figures) that the two lines may be parallel over a broad range of input power, thus resulting in infinite IP3. Mixer knowledge may be useful for a wide range of readers because almost every radio contains at least one mixer.