Double balanced diode mixer using the HSMS-2822

Application Note 5380

Introduction
Passive diode mixers are preferred over active devices in
the following situations:
i. Wide bandwidth (up to several octaves) is required
ii. High intermodulation immunity without the penalty
of high bias current
The ring configuration has the following advantages [1]: -
i. It cancels even-order spurious responses. These
spurious responses arise from the mixing of the
harmonics of the LO and the RF and may fall into the IF
passband if the following condition is met:

iii. DC coupling (e.g. no offset voltage) is needed at the IF mfRF + nfLO = fIF
output When either (or both) the integer 'm' or 'n' is even, the
iv. High LO to IF isolation is required response is rejected by the ring mixer
ii. It suppresses AM noise emanating from the LO
Choice of diodes for mixer
iii. It attenuates LO leakage to both the RF and IF ports
The HSMS-282X family of Schottky diodes is suitable for
However, the balanced nature of the ring configuration
use as diode mixers in applications below 3 GHz. Due to
requires the use of balanced to unbalanced transform-
the medium barrier height of this family of diodes only
ers (balun) for connection to the unbalanced RF and LO
a modest level of local oscillator injection is required for
ports.
proper operation. If a better dynamic range is required,
the higher barrier Schottky HSMS-281X can be used with
an accompanying increase in LO drive. RF LO
For frequencies in the HF/VHF/UHF range, diode mixers
are most commonly used in the ring configuration. For Balun Balun
less critical applications, two pieces of the high-volume
HSMS-2822 (series pair) can be used to form one ring
mixer. However, the crossover quad configuration of the
HSMS-2829 is capable of better performance because the
four diodes are closely matched. Close matching between
the four diodes is a pre-condition for good spurious rejec-
tion and port to port isolation. Figure 2. RF and LO connections of a double balanced mixer using balun
transformers

The balun transformer can take the shape of either a

Ruthroff or a Guanella transmission line transformer. The
former is usually wound on a toroidal core while the latter
is implemented on a binocular core. The Guanella balun
is more difficult to fabricate than the Ruthroff balun. But,
the much wider bandwidth of the Guanella, makes it an
attractive choice [2].

Figure 1. HSMS-2822 and HSMS-2829 in a SOT-23 package

 Sumida
RF HSMS-2822 balun LO
IF

Figure 3. Ruthroff transformer construction Figure 7. Circuit of double balanced mixer

FGenerally, conversion loss improves with LO drive. How-

ever, the improvement tapers off gradually for a LO level
above 7 dBm.

-6

-7

Conversion loss (dB)

-8

-9

Figure 4. Guanella transformer construction -10

The Sumida BM-6 Guanella type balun was chosen for this -11
prototype. The frequency response of the balun was eval- 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
uated by cascading two baluns. The result indicates that LO power (dBm)
the balun is suitable for use from 10 to 500 MHz.
Figure 8. Conversion loss versus local oscillator drive level

2X Sumida
BM-6 balun The lower limit of the IF frequency response of the ring
mixer can extend down to DC. This makes the mixer useful
as a phase detector. However, due to the characteristics
of the balun transformers, some drop in the amplitude is
expected below 10 MHz.

-6
Figure 5. Frequency response measurement setup for baluns
High side LO
-7 Low side LO

-8

-9
Loss (dB)

-10

-11

-12
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
IF freq (MHz)
Figure 9. Conversion loss versus IF frequency

Figure 6. Frequency response of two Sumida BM6 baluns in cascade

2
 -6 -20
High side LO
Low side LO -30
-7
-40

Isolation (dB)
-8
Loss (dB)

-50
-9
-60

-10 -70 LO to RF
LO to IF
-11 -80
0 200 400 600 800 0 200 400 600 800 1000
RF (MHz) LO freq (MHz)

Figure 10. Conversion loss versus RF frequency Figure 11. LO to RF and IF isolation versus LO frequency

For the RF and LO ports, the lower and upper frequency gree of isolation is determined by the matching between
limits are also determined by the balun. To extend the up- the four diodes in the ring, the physical symmetry of the
per frequency response beyond 500 MHz, it is necessary PCB layout and the balun transformer.
to reduce the number of turns in the baluns. However, this
comes with the price of sacrificing the lower frequency re- References
sponse. 1. S. A. Maas, "The Diode-Ring Mixer", RF Design,
The isolation between LO to RF or LO to IF is typically better November 1993.
than 25 dB for the operating frequency range of the ring 2. J. Sevick, Transmission Line Transformers, Noble
mixer. Generally, isolation is best at the lowest frequency Publishing, 1996.
and degrades as the operating frequency is raised. The de-

For product information and a complete list of distributors, please go to our web site: www.avagotech.com

Avago, Avago Technologies, and the A logo are trademarks of Avago Technologies in the United States and other countries.
Data subject to change. Copyright © 2005-2010 Avago Technologies. All rights reserved.
AV02-1100EN - July 16, 2010