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?? ?? 2 [ ?? ?? ?? ?? 1 ?? - ?? 2 ?? - ?? ?? ?? ?? 1 ?? + ?? 2 ?? ] ?? ?? ?? ?? ??
1 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? 2 ?? Design and Optimization of Double Balanced Gilbert Mixer in 130
nm Process Avvaru Subramanyam Dr. R.V.S. Satyanarayana Research Scholar Professor
Department of E.C.E, Sri Venkateswara University College of Engineering, Tirupati
Abstract--A strategic design procedure for double balanced Gilbert mixer is proposed
for specific gain and power requirements at various license exempted frequency ranges
for several wireless equipments in India. The down conversion mixer design is carried
out in various CMOS processes. At 2.5

mW power with a conversion gain of over 10 dB with noise figure under 10 dB is

achieved at minimum overdrives for transconductance and switching stages of the
mixer. Several optimization techniques for enhancement of gain, linearity and noise
performances of the designed mixer are presented. An improvement in linearity about
10 dBm is targeted for 1-dB compression as well as third order intercept points through
exhaustive exploration of the described methods while preserving gain and noise
performances of the mixer.

Keywords--Double balanced Gilbert mixer, conversion gain, linearity, noise figure.

procedure I. INTRODUCTION Wireless communication paved ever increasing demand
for ubiquitous radio communication aids especially at consumer level. It is everywhere
and to name a few, businesses, industries, education, healthcare, defence, automobile,
etc. In order to fulfil the requirements like cost effectiveness, power requirements,
production volume at best yield technology process is sought after. Very large scale
integration (VLSI) at nanometer technology processes is proven and hence it is ever
likely.
Bipolar technology based widely used frequency mixers which are often found in
consumer communication equipment is obsolete. They are migrated to the highly
integrated transceiver architectures. Frequency mixer plays a pivotal role communication
technology in a frequency translator (heterodyner), basically does multiplication of input
signals to produce sum and difference frequencies (up conversion and down
conversion) is a non-linear circuit and one of the most significant blocks in the front end
of an RF receiver. Phase detection, modulation, frequency multiplication and product
detection are a few applications of mixers to name. Fig. 1. Basic functionality of the
mixer As shown in Fig.1, the signals ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? 1 ?? and ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? 2 ?? usually
takes the forms of RF and local oscillator (LO) inputs respectively while the term
consisting of sum frequency represents up conversion where as the other term
corresponds to down conversion respectively. Mixer classification can be done in many
ways.

A mixer which produces conversion gain (voltage or power (power) ratio of output
frequency signal to that of the input signal) is usually referred as an active type while the
one that produces conversion loss is said to be passive. A mixer of unbalanced type has
the disadvantage that the components of input signals appear at the output in addition
to the main product signal where as in the case of a single balanced (differential) miser,
any one of the input signals get suppressed at the output. Inputs of the double
balanced category are fed as differential and they do not appear at the output.

A double balanced mixer offers input balancing and also rejection at the output,
inherent port isolation, better linearity, intercept points and spurs suppression. Because
of LS/IFS TCS/RFS SS/LOS ?? 6 ?? 5 ?? ?? ?? - ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? + ?? ?? ?? + ?? ?? ??
+ ?? ?? ?? - ?? ?? ?? + ?? ?? ?? - ?? 4 ?? 3 ?? 2 ?? 1 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??
?? ?? ?? ?? t ?? ?? ?? 2 ?? ?? ?? - 1 ?? ( ?? - ?? ?? ?? 2 ) 1 ?? ?? - ?? ?? - ?? ?? ?? 2 + 1 S(t) 1
its high performance and compact layout (MOSFETs), Gilbert mixer, relying on circuit
symmetry, has become the most popular double balanced category.

Current switching is the key for operation of the mixer where the load resistors are
offered by direction changing current depending on the switch positions. Fig. 2. Basic
double balanced mixer with and its equivalent representing current commutation
TSS/RFS represents the transconductance/RF stage, SS/LOS indicates the switching/LO
stage and LS/IFS indicates load/IF stage and hence forms a stacked stage mixer
configuration, shown in Fig. 2. Fig. 3.

Representation of switching current for the considered ideal LO input signal The output
current is given as ?? ?? ?? ( ?? ) = ?? ?? ?? + - ?? ?? ?? - = ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? - ?? ?? - ?? ?? ?? 2
(1) Te Fourier series expansion of the square function shown in the figure results
in ?? ?? ?? ( ?? ) = ?? ?? ?? 4 ?? 1 ?? 8 ?? =1,3,5,.. sin ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? = ?? ?? ?? 4 ??
( ?? ?? ?? ?? 0 + 1 3 ?? ?? ?? 3 ?? 0 + 1 5 ?? ?? ?? 5 ?? 0 + ? ) (2) The output voltage is
given by ?? ?? ?? ( ?? ) = ?? ?? ?? ( ?? ) ?? ?? = ?? ?? ?? 4 ?? 1 ?? 8 ?? =1,3,5,..

sin ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? = ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? 4 ?? 1 ?? 8 ?? =1,3,5,..
sin ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? = ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? 4 ?? ( ?? ?? ?? ?? 0 + 1 3 ?? ?? ??
3 ?? 0 + 1 5 ?? ?? ?? 5 ?? 0 + ? ) ?? ?? (3) After trigonometric expansion and focusing on
to the first term we have the desired up and down conversion frequencies given
as ?? ?? ?? ( ?? ) = 4 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? 1 2 ?? ?? ?? ( ?? ?? ?? - ?? ?? ?? ?? - ?? ?? ?? ( ?? ?? ??
- ?? ?? ?? ?? + ? ] ?? ?? = (2 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ) ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ( ?? ?? ?? - ?? ?? ?? ?? - ?? ?? ??
( ?? ?? ?? - ?? ?? ?? ?? + ? ] (4) From the above expression, we can say that the voltage
conversion gain of the mixer can be given as Set L Set RL Estimate ISS Compute WRF
and WLO Determine VRF_od and VLO_od ?? ?? ˜ 2 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ˜
2 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? (5) Similarly generalized expressions for third order
harmonic and inter modulation distortions, input intercept point, 1-dB compression
level and noise figure at the output of the mixer are given in terms of literals with their
standard connotation below.

Third order harmonic distortion, ?? ?? 3 = 1 32 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? V RF 2 (6)

Third order intermodulation distortion, ?? ?? 3 = 3 32 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? V RF 2
(7) Third order input intercept point, ?? ?? ?? ?? 3 = 32 3 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? = 4 2
3 ( ?? ?? ?? - ?? ?? ) (8) The 1-dB gain compression level, ?? 1 - ?? ?? = 0.145 ?? 1 ?? 3 (9)
The noise figure, ?? ?? = 1 + ?? 2 4 ( ?? ?? ?? + 2 ?? ??2 ?? ?? ) (10) II. DESIGN PROCESS
Specifications of mixer play a major role in the design process and is given in the
following table. Table 1.

Mixer specifications for design considerations Technology/ Process Supply Voltage

Conversion Gain Noise Figure Third Order Input Intercept Point Power Consumption 130
nm 1.3 V > 10 dB < 10 dB > -10 dBm < 5 mW A multi band approach is selected for
comprehensive design validity and thus the following frequency ranges are selected as
input RF frequencies and LO frequencies are selected to have an IF of 100 MHz as a
result of down conversion mixing process. Table 2. List of frequency ranges coupled to
licence exemption of wireless equipment in India [1] S. No.

Frequency Range (MHz) Wireless Equipments with Specific Purposes 1 5725 - 5875
Wireless Access Systems (WAS) including Radio LAN 2 2400 - 2483.5 Low power
equipment 3 865 - 867 Low power equipment for RFID devices 4 433 - 434.79 Very low
power RF devices/equipments including RFID Approximation of design parameters uses
the following approach i. D ecide on gate length (technology/process specific) of the
MOSFETs , L is set. ii. Select the load resistance, R L is set. iii. Estimate the current
requirement at specified power consumption and supply voltage, I SS is set. iv. Compute
transistor widths in RF and LO stages using transconductance at specified conversion
gain of the mixer, W RF and W LO are set. v.

Determine the overdrives for RF and LO stages, V RF_OD and V LO_OD. The following
expressions are used to arrive at minimum figures of various design parameters for an
optimal solution of the mixer design. The overall conversion gain of the mixer, ?? ?? ˜
2 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? (11) The drain to source current flowing through the transistors, ?? ?? ??
= ?? ?? 2 ?? 2 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? (12) The transconductance of the trasistors, ?? ?? =
2 ?? ?? ?? ( ?? ?? ?? - ?? ?? ) (13) Table 3. Estimated Parameters for the Mixer Design
Specifications L RL ISS WRF WLO VRF_OD VLO_OD 0.13 um 500 ? III.

SIMULATION RESULTS Simulation of the design is carried out in Keysight Advanced

Design Systems (ADS) software, a premiere high frequency and high speed design
platform for electronic design automation (EDA). In order to test the design, input RF
and LO powers of -30 dBm and 0 dBm respectively are applied with a andarsourrstof ?
the is r ved at a load ince 100 . The following table summarizes the operating points of
the MOSFETs used in the design of the basic mixer. Table 4.

Summary of operating points of the MOSFETs used in the basic mixer design Mixer
Stage Transistors Id (uA) Power (uW) gm (mS) Vth (mV) Vdsat (mV) Vgs (mV) Vds (mV)
TS/RF Stage M1-2 960 176 19.1 273 62.5 372 184 SS/LO State M2-6 480 455 10 195 50.6
249 947 The following observations can be made from operating points of the
transistors in the table which substantiates that the transistors are operating in the
saturation region. The Vds and overdrive voltage condition, ( ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? _ ?? ?? ) ??
1 2 and ( ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? _ ?? ?? ) ?? 3 6 (14) The Vgs and threshold voltage relationship,
( ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ) ?? 1 6 (15) The Vds and drain saturation voltage association,
( ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ) ?? 1 6 (16) ( ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ) ?? 1 6 (17) The input RF, LO
and output IF spectra are shown in Fig. 3 where the markers indicate the respective
frequencies as well as power levels. Fig. 4.

Frequency spectrum display of the input RF and LO signals, and the IF output signal. The
gain, linearity and noise performance of the designed mixer are obtaining by running
harmonic balance simulator and gain compression simulator in ADS which produced a
conversion gain of 10 dB at -30 dBm input RF power can be noticed in Fig. 4.(a). 1-dB
compression can be extracted from Fig. 4.(b) and the gain compresses by 1-dB around
-16 dBm input RF power level. Based on the slopes and by doing extrapolation third
order intercept point can be deduced from Fig. 4.(c) and is found to have an IIP3 near -7
dB. The SSB noise figure can be noticed as 9.3 dB for an input LO power level of 0 dBm
in Fig 4.(d). (a) (b) (c) (d) Fig. 5.
Simulation results showing various performance metrics of the basic mixer For
estimating the performance of the designed mixer exhaustively, a bench marking figure
of merit is modelled which includes all the key parameters like conversion gain, noise
figure, input LO power, input RF frequency, 1 -dB compression level and third order
input inte rcepts, given by ?? ?? ?? = 10 ?? ?? ?? 10( ?? ?? - 2 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? + ?? ?? ?? 3 -
10 - ?? ?? ?? )/20 ?? 0/1 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? /1 ?? ?? (18) Table 5. Summarized Simulation
Results of the Designed Mixer in 130 nm Process fRF (MHz) fLO (MHz) fIF (MHz) CG (dB)
NFSSB (dB) NFDSB (dB) IIP3 (dBm) OIP3 (dBm) P1-dB C (dBm) FoM (dB) 5825 5725 100
10.01 9.38 6.32 -7.1 2.82 -16.22 51.72 2400 2300 10.89 9.07 5.88 -6.71 4.07 -15.99 52.66
865 765 11.42 9.09 5.81 -6.17 5.14 -15.34 53.18 434 334 11.68 9.14 5.87 -5.92 5.66 -15.13
53.38 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? VBn ?? ?? VBp ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? VBn ?? ??
?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? The results of the designed mixer shows around 10 dB conversion
gain, noise figure below 10 dB which are of good fit however the linearity performance
is not great as it produced 1-dB compression level no more than -15 dBm and input and
output third order intercept points beneath -5 dB and 3 dB respectively.

Thus there is a necessity for improvisation in mixer performance metrics and several
simple and basic optimization techniques are highly considerable. A critical observation
is that the simulated results concerned to all the performance metrics are satisfactorily
fine in consistency at all the input RF and LO frequencies to produce the desire IF
output. The basic mixer design is also carried out in 0.18 µm, 0.25 µm and 0.35 µm
technologies to examine the consistency of the results produced, at different
frequencies as mentioned in Table 2.

The simulation results of the designed mixer with reference to various performance
metrics are reasonably at the same level. For the mixer in 0.18 µm process, fRF and fLO
are 5825 MHz and 5725 MHz respectively which resulted in a FoM of 48.34, for 0.25 µm
process, fRF and fLO are 2400 MHz and 2300 MHz respectively which resulted in a FoM
of 46.96, and for 0.35 µm process, fRF and fLO are 434 MHz and 334 MHz respectively
which resulted in a FoM of 46.82 As the technology progressed, with climbing RF and
LO frequencies and to achieve similar values of performance measures, the resultant
power dissipation got reduced and thus an improvement in the FoM is evident. Fig.. 6.

Visualization of results of the basic mixer designed in other CMOS

Technology/Processes IV. PERFORMANCE OPTIMIZATION Several optimization
techniques are described below to enhance the performance of the designed mixer
targeting especially on gain, linearity and noise metrics. A. Active Loads The basic
difference between resistive and active load configuration can be best described in Fig.
5. Fig. 7. Resistive load and active load configurations CG (dB) NF_SSB (dB) IIP3 (dBm)
P_1-dB C (dBm) P_dis (mW) 180 nm 10.2 10.93 -6.05 -15.34 3.5 250 nm 10.5 10.49 -6.92
-15.55 5 350 nm 10.6 8.9 -7.6 -16.99 8 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 The gain of the resistive
load configuration can be given as ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? = - ?? ?? ( ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? || ?? ?? )
(19) In order to improve gain, either gm or RL need to be increased.

Increasing Id results in increase of gm however it leads to increased power dissipation.

Alternatively, there will be a gain reduction upon incremental RL as a result of reduced
output swing since MOSFET Mn moves towards triode region. The gain of the active
load configuration can be given as ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? = - ?? ?? ( ?? ?? ?? ?? ??
|| ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ) (20) As the parallel combination of the drain to source resistances of the
MOSFETS Mn and Mp is more than that of the Mn and load resistance, the gain is said
to be improved using active loads for resistive loads []. P-channel MOSFETs are less
likely affected by low flicker noise when compared to the n- channel type. B.

Current Bleeding/Stealing/Injecting An improved conversion gain as well as noise

performance is possible by providing more current (injection) at transconductance stage
by reducing (bleeding/stealing) switching pairs current flow which is achieved by
introducing resistors or MOSFETs in the RF path. Resistive current bleeding can be best
describes as following. The current bleeding resistor is chosen such that one sixth of the
tail current is utilized. With the inclusion of RCB as shown in the schematic of the basic
mixer design, the improved conversion gain depends on the increase in RCB value,
approximated as ?? ?? ˜ 2 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? 1+ 1 ?? ?? ?? ( ?? ?? ?? ?? + ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? )
(21) where gmRF and gmbLO represent the transconductances of RF and LO MOSFETs
and gmLOb represents substrate transconductance of LO MOSFETs.

The noise figure can be approximated as NF = 2 + 4 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? + 4 ?? ?? ??

2 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? + 2 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? 2 ?? ?? ?? 2( ?? ?? ?? ?? + ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? )2 + ??
2(1+ 1 ?? ?? ?? ( ?? ?? ?? ?? + ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ))2 2 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? 2 (22) The total noise
is affected by the thermal noise of RCB and it gets improved with increasing RCB while
the noise generated by the LO MOSFET switching pair is also critical [9]. MOSFET based
current bleeding can be summarized as following. MOSFETs (M9 and M10 in the
schematic) can be used as current source helpers/bleeders for improving the
transconductance at the RF stage and thus increasing conversion gain which in turn aids
in noise figure improvement.

The output current approximated for the basic mixer and the mixer with current
bleeding using the following expressions. ?? ?? ?? = 2 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??
( ?? ?? ?? - ?? ?? ?? ?? - ?? ?? ?? ( ?? ?? ?? - ?? ?? ?? ?? + ? ] (23) ?? ?? ?? , ?? ?? ?? = 2 ??
( ?? ?? ?? ?? + ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ) ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ( ?? ?? ?? - ?? ?? ?? ?? - ?? ?? ?? ( ?? ?? ?? - ??
?? ?? ?? + ? ] (24) All of the mentioned techniques are applied to the designed basic
resistive load double balanced mixer. A criteria is followed for various combinations to
examine for improved mixer performance across various performance metrics.

Some of them are mutually exclusive and some other are conditionally exclusive, as
listed below. C. Inductive Tuning At high frequencies, the parasitic capacitance (Cp)
present between the source nodes of the switching LO transistors degrades the noise
figure and the conversion gain by reducing the transconductance and thereby aiding to
the induction of flicker noise (1/f noise ) and its appearance at the output of the mixer.
Since the LO signal switches at regular intervals, parasitic capacitance is charged and
discharged by the LO inputs.

To lessen the flicker noise by cancellation of parasitic tail capacitance effects between
LO stage source nodes, a shunt tuning inductor (LT) has been positioned between drains
of the RF transistors that are in turn connected to the sources of LO transistors [6]. D.
Source Degeneration Linearity can be greatly improved by imposing degeneration
techniques on the basic mixer. Source degeneration can be realized using resistors,
inductors, or MOSFETs. Resistive source degeneration can be described as following. To
linearize the RF stage of the mixer and to extend the input range, resistors RD are added
in series with the source terminal forming a local negative feedback leading to reduced
gain.

Source currents of the RF stage transistors flow through and deducts from the input
voltage. This technique provides trade-offs among conversion gain, noise, power
dissipation and more importantly the linearity. Noise and dynamic range performance
trade-off appears adhering to the selection of RD. The corresponding transconductance
is given by ?? ?? = ?? ?? ?? ?? 1+ ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? (25) The amount of degeneration can
be represented by a dimensionless parameter ' ?? ' given by ?? = ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? (26)
Substituting (26) in (2), the overall transconductance of the mixer can be given as ?? ?? =
?? ?? ?? ?? 1+ ?? (27) For the basic mixer with degeneration resistor, he conversion gain
can be approximated to ?? ?? ˜ 2 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? 1+ ?? ?? ?? (28) Resistive degeneration
technique degrades the conversion gain favouring linearization benefits like the 1-dB
compression and the third-order intercept levels. Inductive source degeneration can be
summarized as following.

An ideal inductor reduces the circuit's supply voltage requirement by not adding noise
to the circuit since the DC drop across the inductor is zero thus appropriate for low-
voltage application however this technique's outcome is frequency dependent. A
negative series feedback source degeneration entails desensitization or reduction of
gain providing simpler input matching and linearization [2]. At higher frequencies,
enhancement in linearity and gain degradation are more effective comparatively.
Especially, the third order linearity of the designed mixer depends on the type and
amount of degeneration (inductive or resistive) the bias current. The quality factor of an
inductor is given by ?? = ?? ?? ?? = 2 ?? ?? ?? ?? (29) It is around 3 at 5.825 GHz for a
series resistance of 10 . Thus inductance with series resistance is investigated to find the
effects on linearity of the mixer.

The designed mixer will be more linear when compared to the resistive degeneration
however the circuit size gets increased. As far as the input impedance and stability are
considered, with input impedance ZS, at the gate of the degenerated source
configuration, the input impedance is given by ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? = ?? ?? + 1 ?? ?? ?? ?? ??
+ ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? = ?? ?? ?? + 1 ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? + ?? ?? ?? (30) Thus a non-frequency
dependent positive real part is produced indicating stability in the case of series
inductance source degeneration [3]. Table 6. Criteria to arrive at various Combinational
Optimization Techniques S.No.

Technique/ Design Treatment in Optimization 1 Inductive Tuning Independent 2,3 Basic

Resistive Load and Active PMOS Load Mutually Exclusive 4,5 Resistive Current Bleed and
PMOS Current Bleed 6,7 Resistive Degeneration and Inductive Degeneration 8 Inductive
Degeneration with/without series resistance Conditionally Exclusive The inductive tuning
technique is considered as independent as it can be used in any of the combinations,
only one of the resistive load or active PMOS load techniques is considered making
them mutually exclusive and inductive degeneration alone and inductive degeneration
with added series resistance techniques as they are not independent and mutually
exclusive makes them conditionally exclusive. Fig. 8.

Schematic of the basic mixer design with combined optimization techniques In the
schematic, the designed mixer along with the deactivated (crossed) active PMOS load
(M7 and M8), degeneration elements RD1-2 and LS1-2 with RS1-2, current bleed
resistors (RCB1-2) and PMOS current bleed (M9 and M10) are shown. Deactivate or
Activate components command (icon) in the tool can be used to toggle items from one
state to the other for deactivation or activation of individual components. Fig. 9 and 10
displays the simulation results of the basic mixer with the employed PMOS active load,
PMOS current bleed and inductive source degeneration techniques (Comb. No. 38 in
Table 7). Fig. 9.

Display of inputs and outputs (RFin, LOin, Vout1, Vout2 and Vload) in time domain (a)
(b) Fig. 10. Results of the mixer with active load, PMOS current bleed with inductive
degeneration (a), 1-dB compression at -6.8 dBm input RF power level (b) third order
intercept point near +3 dBm. Table 7. Simulation Results of the described Optimization
Techniques Comb. No. P CB I T R CB R L P L R D I D ID SR CG (dB) P1-dB C (dBm) IIP3
(dBm) OIP3 (dBm) NFSSB (dB) FoM (dB) 1 ? 10.01 -16.22 -7.1 2.82 9.38 50.75 2 ? 17.46
-20.22 -11 6.21 9.62 52.27 3 7.2 -10.2 -1.52 5.66 9.35 52.16 4 5.9 -9.24 -0.1 5.78 11.2
50.37 5 7.79 -13.4

-4.18 3.56 11.15 49.33 6 16.43 -17.46 -7.77 8.56 9.8 53.20 7 14.76 -15.99 -6.22 8.46 11.6
51.34 8 15.51 -17.78 -8.63 6.75 11.42 50.70 9 10.27 -16.45 -7.28 2.91 9.42 50.75 10 7.54
-10.9 -1.97 5.56 9.38 52.08 11 6.1 -9.5 -0.34 5.76 11.21 50.34 12 7.98 -13.61 -4.28 3.66
11.17 49.35 13 14.5 -13.14 -4.31 10.5 9.55 54.22 14 12.53 -8.69 -6.13 6.47 9.69 52.18 15
11.12 -7.29 -4.42 6.75 11.5 50.52 16 12.69 -10.48 -3.53 9.2 11.34 51.91 17 11.53 -13.95
-5.41 6.09 8.94 52.79 18 9.1 -5.76 -2 7.12 8.36 53.86 19 7.81 -4.5 -0.42 7.41 10.33 52.04
20 9.5 -10.9 -2.61 6.89 10.64 51.48 21 19.94 -20.98 -11.9 7.81 9.07 53.63 22 19.04 -19.07
-9.94 8.97 8.6 54.62 23 17.98 -17.78 -8.02 9.88 10.53 53.12 24 18.74 -19.29 -9.87 8.71
10.77 52.34 25 11.68 -13.72 -5.67 5.97 8.94 52.74 26 9.31 -6.38 -2.82 6.51 8.35 53.57 27
7.99 -5.29 -1.29 6.72 10.32 51.70 28 9.64 -10.59 -3 6.63 10.65 51.34 29 16.63 -11.84 -10
6.8 9.06 52.93 30 14.58 -8.99 -9.58 5.19 8.61 52.56 31 13.31 -7.69 -8.3 5.14 10.56 50.62
32 14.77 -9.49 -8.9 6.02 10.78 50.83 33 10.27 -16.45 -7.29 2.99 9.52 50.64 34 12.85
-13.19 -4.18 8.62 9.66 53.35 35 7.55 -10.9 -1.91 5.62 9.64 51.85 36 6.25 -9.82 -0.38 5.87
11.46 50.15 37 8.09 -13.72 -4.36 3.69 11.32 49.22 38 10.26 -6.65 2.95 13.24 9.95 55.33 39
8.93 -5.41 6.76 15.72 11.73 54.79 40 10.68 -10.2 -0.33 10.34 11.49 52.36 41 11.78 -13.49
-5.94 5.8 9.03 52.56 42 9.64 -8.39 -3.83 5.83 8.59 52.99 43 8.26 -6.95 -2.31 5.96 10.54
51.11 44 9.75 -10.2 -3.44 6.3 10.77 51.06 45 14.44 -8.28 -4.3 10.16 9.16 54.58 46 12.35
-5.88 -5.81 6.66 8.85 53.09 47 10.99 -4.47 -4.25 6.79 10.77 51.27 48 12.45 -6.13 -3.39
9.11 10.92 52.28 Performance metrics best improved to 19.94 -4.47 6.76 15.72 8.35 56.3
Performance metrics maximum degraded to 5.9 -20.98 -11.9 2.91 11.73 50.19
Enhancement swing recorded 14.04 16.51 18.65 12.81 3.38 6.11 Based on the criteria in
Table 5, simulated results of total 48 combinations (Comb. No.1 is the basic mixer with
resistive loads) are summarized in Table 7.

The literal PCB stands for PMOS Current Bleed technique and a ? mark indicates that the
technique (component) is used for optimizing or just for evaluating mixer performance.
Similarly IT for inductive tuning, RCB for resistive current bleed, RL for basic resistive
load, PL for PMOS load, RD for resistive degeneration, ID for inductive degeneration and
IDSR stands for inductive degeneration with series resistance. Table 8. Values of
elements used in optimization techniques WPCB LT RCB RL WAPL RSD LSD RS-ISD 6 um
2.5

nH PCB and WAPL indicate the widths of the PMOS current bleed and active PMOS load
respectively, RCB, RL and RSD correspond to current bleed, load and degenerative
resistors respectively, RS-ISD stands for added series resistance of inductive
degeneration where as LT and LSD represent tuning and degenerative inductors
respectively. Table 9. Summary of operating points of the MOSFETs for Comb. 38 in
Table 10 Mixer Stage/Path Transistors Id (uA) Power (uW) gm (mS) Vth (mV) Vdsat (mV)
Vgs (mV) Vds (mV) TS/RF Stage M1-2 965 189 19.2 269 62.1 367 196 SS/LO State M2-6
321 346 7.03 200 46.5

231 1080 It is observed that the parameters in Table 9 confirms that the RF and LO stage
transistors a re operated in saturation regime . Fig. 8. Visualization of variation in mixer
performance metrics recorded in Table 10. The figure shows a comparative visualization
of all the 47 combinations (Comb. No. 2-48) of optimization possibilities along with the
basic resistive load mixer configuration (Comb. No. 1). V. DISCUSSION AND
COMPARISON From the results in Table 10, inductive degeneration technique produced
an improvement in conversion gain in the range of 1.4 to 2.2 dB however it reduced the
noise figure in the range of 0.4 to 1.2 dB.

Similarly, the PMOS active load technique showed an improvement in the range of 2.6
to 10.2 dB but it degraded the noise figure in the range of 0.1 to 0.45 dB. Resistive
current bleed technique hardly offered any degradation in noise performance since the
switching noise is proportional to the current flow through the LO stage. Thus lowering
the bias -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37
39 41 43 45 47 49 CG (dB) P1-dB C (dBm) IIP3 (dBm) NFSSB (dB) FoM (dB) current
through the LO switches results in improved overall noise performance thus a positive
outcome of current bleeding techniques. It has provided under half dB improvement in
conversion gain, however it degraded 3 to 4.7

db of the same combined with PMOS active load configuration and offered 7 to 10 dB
improvement in 1-dB compression level for the same. In order to increase the
conversion gain of resistive current bleed technique, RCB should increase, leading a
higher voltage drop across RCB, which in turn reduces the voltage at the node between
RCB and RF stage transistors eventually driving them out of their saturation regime.

PMOS current bleeding along with PMOS active load technique produced good linearity
to the mixer offering in the order of 10 dBm improvement in both 1-dB compression
and third order intercept points without degrading the noise performance. Since the
insertion of the current bleed PMOS in the RF path facilitates smaller bias currents
allocation to M3-6, raising the impedance because of the increased parasitic capacitance
at the source nodes of the switching stage steals a greater portion of the RF current
generated by M1-2 which in turn reduces the overall gain of the mixer [7]. This issue can
be resolved with the help of impedance matching network at the source nodes such that
the increased impedance is compensated.
Another technique is to use current-reuse bleeding where the bleed transistors
connecting to the RF input s resulting the effective improvement in the RF stage
transconductance [10] however this affects the overall power consumption of the mixer.
Also a P- channel MOSFET has lower unity current gain frequency than that of N-
channel MOSFET thus limiting the mixer's maximum operating frequency. Resistive
source degeneration technique guaranteed improvement in linearity at the cost of both
conversion gain (0.2 to 2 dB) and noise figure (1 to 2 dB).

The inductive source degeneration alone produced over 5 dbm improvement in linearity
while it degraded conversion gain by 2 dB with a little effect on noise performance
compared to that of the basic mixer. Inductive degeneration produced better noise
performance compared resistive degeneration. The noise figure recorded with inductive
degeneration alone is almost identical to that without degeneration technique. Inductive
degeneration along with series resistance offered a linearity improvement of more than
7 dBm while the conversion gain and noise figure were degraded by 4.1 dB and 1.8 dB
respectively.

Resistive behaviour of the MOSFET can be observed when it is biased in strong triode
region and it behaves more linear compared to that in saturation region [5]. Thus a
MOSFET can be used for resistor in source degeneration however, process and
temperature variations affects the linearity of the mixer hence we have not considered
this as a viable option for optimization. There exist several works utilizing various
optimization techniques in the literature however enhancing one performance metric
degraded the other and vice versa as shown in Table. 10.

They extremely stick on to the trade-offs in RFIC design [11] as depicted in Fig. 9. For
instance, in order to have better noise performance, either power consumption or
linearity happens to be forfeited. Fig. 9. Hexagon summarizing RF design trade-offs
Frequency Gain Power Supply Voltage Noise Linearity Table 10. A comparison of the
carried out work with existing ones in the literature Reference [A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] This
Work Tech. (nm) 130 130 180 130 130 90 130 VDD (V) 1.2 1.5 1.8 0.35 1 1.2 1.3 fRF (GHz)
2 5.5 2.1 2.4 0.9 43 5.825 PRF (dBm) -15 -40 n/a n/a n/a n/a -30 fLO (GHz) 2 5.25 n/a n/a
0.85 n/a 5.725 PLO (dBm) -2 0 5 0 0 0 0 fIF (GHz) 0.25 0.25 n/a n/a 0.5 0.1 0.1

CG (dB) 8.5 7.49 15 13.74 18.4 2 10.26 P1-dB C (dBm) -13 -10.5 n/a n/a -18 -1 -6.65 IIP3
(dBm) 14.5 0.84 15 -3.5 12.5 9.5 3.08 NF (dB) 17.9 6.9 14 18 11.5 16 9.95 Pdis (mW) 15.12
34.5 8 0.52 4 6 2.5 FoM (dB) 40.81 44.29 47.69 48.76 52.47 53.3 55.39 Topology/
Technique Feed forward linearization Noise cancellation with current bleeding Distortion
cancellation Current- bleeding with inductive- gate and forward- body bias Diff. folded
mixer with multiple- feedback Gate driven Active load and current bleed with source
degeneration However in this work, as per the design specifications of the basic mixer ,
the power requirements and input frequencies were retained while there is a little
improvement in the conversion gain (a quarter dB) , and an acceptable degradation in
the noise figure (half a dB) in order to achieve superior improvement in linearity (above
10 dBm in both 1 -dB commpression level and thirrd order intercept points) through a
strategic and exhaustive assessment of fusion of the described optimization techniques.
Table. 10 Summary of performance metrics with FOM for Comb . No.

Optimization Technique CG (dB) P1-dB C (dBm) IIP3 (dBm) OIP3 (dBm) NFSSB (dB) FoM
(dB) 1 Basic Mixer 10.01 -16.22 -7.1 2.82 9.38 50.75 38 Basic Mixer employing PMOS
Active Load , PMOS Current B leed and Inductive Degeneration Combination 10. 26
-6.65 3.08 13.35 9.95 55.33 Improvement /Degradation 0. 25 9.57 10. 18 10.53 -0.57 4.58
Observing th e tabulated results, the basic mixer with PMOS active load, PMOS current
bleed and inductive degeneration technique provides around +10 dBm improvement in
1 -dB compression level, third order input and output intercept points and a quarter dB
improvement in conversion gain, overcoming the poor linearity performance of the
basic mixer however a half dB degradation in noise figure is achieved. An improvement
of above 4.5

dB in mixer FOM is thus ensured and the same is portrayed in a clustered column chart
as in Fig. 10, for enhanced visualization of the improvement highlighting linearity
perspective of the mixer. Fig. 10. Comparison of the best outcome (Comb. 38) with that
of the basic mixer (Comb. 1) VI. CONCLUSION A double balanced Gilbert mixer is
designed using a strategic procedure for specific gain and at required power in 130 nm
CMOS process for various license exempted frequency ranges for several wireless
equipments in India.

The mixer is also designed in 180, 250 and 350 nm CMOS technologies and compared
the outcome at different input frequencies and power requirements for is extensive
validity. The designed basic mixer produced a conversion gain of over 10 dB with noise
figure under 10 dB at minimum overdrive voltages for RF and LO stages of the mixer at
a d.c power of 2.5 mW. The basic mixer exhibited enhancement in gain, linearity and
noise performances upon integration of a variety of optimization techniques.

More than 10 dBm improvement in both 1-dB compression and third order intercept
points registered through comprehensive exploitation of the depicted enhancement
methods while securing the intended over 10 dB conversion gain and under 10 dB noise
figure. -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 CG (dB) P1-dB C (dBm) IIP3 (dBm) OIP3 (dBm) NFSSB
(dB) FoM (dB) Basic Mixer Mixerwith PMOS load, PMOS Current Bleed and Inductive
Degeneration Variation
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