Analysis of Multiconductor Coupled-Line Marchand Baluns for Miniature MMIC Design

Abstract

The analysis and systematic design procedure for multiconductor coupled-line Marchand baluns are presented in this paper. A simple two-conductor coupled-line model is used to analyze the Marchand balun and simplify the analysis significantly. Two monolithic balanced frequency doublers with miniature Marchand baluns are implemented to verify the design procedure. Both the chips achieve the smallest chip sizes at their operating frequencies with comparable performance.