Abstract

For use as up-converter in Ka-band VSAT outdoor units, an highly integrated mixer with a double input for balanced operation was designed. This self-bias double conversion mixer MMIC has been designed in order to ease the integration, reduce the size, and finally reach the cost requirements for such systems. The mixer is a multifunction chip, which integrates two frequency doublers and a cold FET mixer for a chip size of only 2.88 mm2. Such a compactness was achieved thanks to a 0.25-µm Pseudomorphic-HEMT process using MIM capacitors over via holes. The mixer exhibits broadband performance, with up-converter loss of only 8 dB for an LO power of +10 dBm and 10-GHz IF frequency.