A 1.5-V Current Mirror Double-Balanced Mixer With 10-dBm IIP3 and 9.5-dB Conversion Gain

This brief presents the design of a double-balanced mixer for linearity-stringent communication systems. The pro- posed mixer is based on a current-mirror structure embedded with a switching pair. By utilizing the linear duplication characteristic of current mirrors, an improved linearity is achieved. The mixer is designed and fabricated in 0.18-μm 1P6M radio-frequency CMOS process, operating in the frequency band from 0.5 to 3 GHz. Measurement results indicate a peak conversion gain of 9.5 dB, a high input 3rd order intercept point (IIP3) of 10 dBm and a moderate noise figure (NF) of 16.5 dB. In addition, due to the folded structure, the mixer can be applicable in low-supply-voltage applications. The whole mixer has a compact die area of 0.1 mm2, and the power dissipation is 5.4 mW under 1.5-V supply voltage.