Chapter 6 Mixers
1 Sections to be covered
• 6.1 General Considerations • 6.2 Passive Downconversion Mixers • 6.3 Active Downconversion Mixers
2 Chapter Outline
General Passive Mixers Considerations Conversion Gain Port-to-Port Feedthrough Single-Balanced and Double-Balanced Mixers Passive and Active Mixers Active Mixers Conversion Gain
3 Recall: Generic TX & RX
4 General Considerations (I)
Mixers perform frequency translation by multiplying two waveforms.
Example: mixer using an ideal switch
VLO turns the switch on and off, yielding
VVIF RFor V IF 0 multiplication of the RF input by a square wave toggling between 0
and 1, even if VLO is a sinusoid.
𝑣 𝑡 𝑣 𝑡 ⋅ 𝑆 𝑡 5 General Considerations (II) Mixers perform frequency translation by multiplying two waveforms (and possibly their harmonics). Example: mixer using an ideal switch
𝑉 𝑓 𝑉 𝑓 𝑣 𝑡 𝑣 𝑡 ⋅ 𝑆 𝑡
VRF
The circuits mixes the RF input with all of the LO harmonics, producing “mixing spurs”. The LO port of this mixer is very nonlinear.
The RF port must remain sufficiently linear to satisfy the compression and intermodulation requirements. 6 Performance Parameters: Port-to-Port Feedthrough
feedthrough from the LO port to the RF and IF ports. gate-source capacitances gate-drain capacitances
Owing to device capacitances, mixers suffer from unwanted coupling (feedthrough) from one port to another. Example of LO-RF Feedthrough in Mixer
Consider the mixer shown below, where VLO = V1 cos ωLOt + V0 and CGS denotes the gate-source overlap capacitance of M1. Neglecting the on-resistance of M1 and assuming abrupt switching, determine the dc offset at the output for RS = 0 and RS > 0. Assume RL >> RS. The LO leakage to node X is expressed as
Basic component of VLO (square wave) can be expressed as
The dc component:
8 The output dc offset vanishes if RS = 0. Single-Balanced Mixers The simple mixer operate with a single-ended RF input and a single-ended LO. Discarding the RF signal for half of the LO Single-balanced mixer: Two switches are driven by differential LO phases; transform the RF input to the two outputs. 1cos𝜔 𝑡 0 𝑆 𝜔 𝑡 significant 0cos𝜔 𝑡 0 1 cos 𝜔 𝑡 0 𝑆 𝜔 𝑡 LO-IF feedthrough!!!! 1 2 1 cos 𝜔 𝑡 0 1 cos 𝑛 𝜔 𝑡 2 𝑛𝜋 4 1 cos 𝑛 𝜔 𝑡 𝑛𝜋 , , ,..., 𝑣 𝑡 𝑣 𝑡 ⋅ 𝑆 𝜔 𝑡 1 2 𝑣 𝑡 𝑣 𝑡 cos 𝜔 𝑡 2 𝜋 2 𝑣 𝑡 𝑣 𝑡 ⋅ 𝑆 𝜔 𝑡 𝑣 𝑡 cos 3 𝜔 𝑡 ... 4 4 3𝜋 𝑣 𝑡 cos 𝜔 𝑡 𝑣 𝑡 cos 3 𝜔 𝑡 𝜋 3𝜋 . . .
The circuit provides differential outputs easing the design of subsequent stages. 9 The LO-RF feedthrough at ωLO (dc component) vanishes if the circuit is symmetric due to the differential output. Single-Balanced Mixers The simple mixer operate with a single-ended RF input and a single-ended LO. Discarding the RF signal for half of the LO Single-balanced mixer: Two switches are driven by differential LO phases; transform the RF input to the two outputs. 1cos𝜔 𝑡 0 𝑆 𝜔 𝑡 0cos𝜔 𝑡 0 1 2 1 cos 𝑛 𝜔 𝑡 2 𝑛𝜋
𝑣 𝑡 𝑣 𝑡 ⋅ 𝑆 𝜔 𝑡 1 2 𝑣 𝑡 𝑣 𝑡 cos 𝜔 𝑡 2 𝜋 2 𝑣 𝑡 cos 3 𝜔 𝑡 ... 3𝜋
The circuit provides differential outputs easing the design of subsequent stages. 10 The LO-RF feedthrough at ωLO (dc component) vanishes if the circuit is symmetric due to the differential output. Single-Balanced Mixers The simple mixer operate with a single-ended RF input and a single-ended LO. Discarding the RF signal for half of the LO Single-balanced mixer: Two switches are driven by differential LO phases; transform the RF input to the two outputs. 1cos𝜔 𝑡 0 𝑆 𝜔 𝑡 1 cos 𝜔 𝑡 0 significant 0cos𝜔 𝑡 0 𝑆 𝜔 𝑡 1 cos 𝜔 𝑡 0 LO-IF feedthrough!!!! 1 2 1 cos 𝑛 𝜔 𝑡 2 𝑛𝜋 4 1 cos 𝑛 𝜔 𝑡 𝑛𝜋 , , ,...,
𝑣 𝑡 𝑣 𝑡 ⋅ 𝑆 𝜔 𝑡 1 2 𝑣 𝑡 𝑣 𝑡 cos 𝜔 𝑡 2 𝜋 2 𝑣 𝑡 𝑣 𝑡 ⋅ 𝑆 𝜔 𝑡 𝑣 𝑡 cos 3 𝜔 𝑡 ... 4 4 3𝜋 𝑣 𝑡 cos 𝜔 𝑡 𝑣 𝑡 cos 3 𝜔 𝑡 𝜋 3𝜋 . . .
The circuit provides differential outputs easing the design of subsequent stages. 11 The LO-RF feedthrough at ωLO (dc component) vanishes if the circuit is symmetric due to the differential output. LO-RF/LO-IF Feedthrough in Direct-Conversion RX
In the direct-conversion receiver: LO-RF feedthrough is entirely determined by the symmetry of the mixer circuit and LO waveforms. (cancelled by balance structure)
The LO-IF feedthrough is not harmful because it is heavily suppressed by 12 the baseband low-pass filter(s). Power of RF signal is smaller than that of LO, which makes LO-RF feedthrough more harmful. RF-IF/RF-LO Feedthrough in Direct-Conversion RX
RF frequency is equal to LO frequency.
A large in-band interferer can couple to the LO and injection-pull it. Effect? corrupting the LO spectrum. Solution? interpose a buffer between the LO and the mixer
The RF-IF feedthrough corrupts the baseband signal by the beat component 2 resulting from even-order distortion in the RF path. (cos ωRFt related to IP2, but not discussed in this course) 13 LO-RF/LO-IF Feedthrough in Heterodyne RX
Special case: LO frequency is far away from RF frequency while close to IF frequency.
The LO-RF feedthrough is relatively unimportant The LO leakage falls outside the band Attenuated by the selectivity of the LNA, the front-end band-select filter, and the antenna. Even there is residual LO leakage the dc offset appearing at the output of the RF mixer It can be removed by a high-pass filter (due to the IF output).
The LO-IF feedthrough becomes serious if ωIF and ωLO are too close,
We can not remove ωLO by filtering. LO is generated locally, with a high power level; LO feedthrough may desensitize the IF mixers if its level is comparable with their 1-db compression point. 14 Double-Balanced Mixers The single-balanced mixer We connect two single-balanced mixers suffers from significant LO- their output LO feedthroughs cancel, IF feedthrough. but their output signals do not.