A 4.2-mW 6-dB Gain 5–65-GHz Gate-Pumped Down-Conversion Mixer Using Darlington Cell for 60-GHz CMOS Receiver

Abstract

A high-gain gate-pumped down-conversion mixer at 60 GHz is realized in a standard 90-nm CMOS process. The proposed mixer adopted a Darlington cell and a microstrip-line Lange coupler to yield wide 3-dB bandwidth from 5 to 65 GHz. The measured performance demonstrates a conversion gain (CG) of 6 dB at 4.2-mW power consumption. The maximum CG is 6.5 dB at 36 GHz. This mixer is then integrated with a three-stage low-noise amplifier, to form a 60-GHz receiver front-end. The receiver achieves a CG of 28 dB with a noise figure of 7.1 dB at 20-mW power consumption from a 1-V supply voltage. The 3-dB RF bandwidth is 14 GHz.