Abstract

This work reports on the design and measured performance of a single-ended upconverter at Ka-band. The upconverler uses a 6.5x3[im2 GalnP/GaAs HBT as the nonlinear mixing element. The LO is injected into the emitter of the 1IBT, the IF is applied to the base, and the RF is extracted from the collector. This topology utilizes all three ports of the transistor and avoids the need for a diplexer or other method of combining or separating the signals. The IF, LO, and RF frequencies are 3.6 GHz, 26.5 GHz, and 30.1 GHz respectively. The measured conversion loss was less than 2dB at the center of the band while the third order intercept point was -2dBm. These results were obtained with an LO power of only -2dBm. The overall chip size is 3.7x2.5mm2.