Design of Single and Double Balanced Gilbert Cell Mixer using CMOS Processing Technology

IJSTE - International Journal of Science Technology & Engineering | Volume 3 | Issue 10 | April 2017 ISSN (online): 2349-784X

Design of Single and Double Balanced Gilbert Cell Mixer using CMOS Processing Technology Jinal Shah PG Student Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering LJ Institute of Engineering and Technology Ahmedabad, India

Nimesh Prabhakar Assistant Professor Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering LJ Institute of Engineering and Technology Ahmedabad, India

Abstract This paper presents down conversion single and double balanced mixer. Mixer is designed with the help of CMOS Processing technology. Double balanced mixer consists of parallel connection of two single balanced mixer. Double balanced mixer topology has better port to port isolation compared to single balanced mixer. Various parameters are measured on mixer topology that is conversion gain and linearity parameters such as 1 dB compression point and third order intercept point. A comparison is made between single and double mixer and it shows that conversion gain and linearity parameters are improved in double balanced mixer.

Keywords: Single Balanced Mixer, Double Balanced Mixer, Conversion Gain, 1Db Compression Point, Third Order Intercept Point ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I.

INTRODUCTION

In a receiver system down conversion mixer is a key building block. It determines system linearity, noise figure and performance of adjacent block. RF Mixers are 3-port active or passive devices. They are designed to yield both, a sum and a difference frequency at a single output port when two distinct input frequencies are inserted into the other two ports.

Fig. 1: RF Mixer [10]

The two signals inserted into the two input ports are usually the Local Oscillator signal, and the incoming (for a receiver) or outgoing (for a transmitter) signal. To produce a new Frequency (or new frequencies) a nonlinear device is required.

RF Mixer is fundamentally a device, which is shifting a signal from one frequency to another, keeping the properties of the initial signal (phase and amplitude), and therefore doing a linear operation. An LTI circuit cannot do frequency translation, hence either a time varying parameter or a non-linearity is used.

Along with the sum and difference of frequencies, it also produces harmonics of input frequency, LO frequency and their intermodulation products. These harmonics increase non- linearity of mixer. The basic aim while designing mixer is to suppress these harmonics.

RF Mixers use two operation mechanisms:  Nonlinear transfer function, which use device nonlinearities creatively in a matter that intermodulation creates the desired frequency and unwanted frequencies.

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Design of Single and Double Balanced Gilbert Cell Mixer using CMOS Processing Technology (IJSTE/ Volume 3 / Issue 10 / 072)



Switching or sampling is a time-varying process. This method is preferred because has fewer spurs and can provide higher linearity.

II. SINGLE BALANCED MIXER

A single balanced have differential LO signal but single ended RF signal. Active mixers have basically three functions:  Convert RF voltage to a current.  Steer the RF current by LO.  Convert IF current to voltage.

Thus active mixer incorporate switching by voltage to current and current to voltage conversion. Here input transconductance and output transresistance can have large values yeilding high conversion gain.

As shown in the figure RF signal varies the drain current at M1. M2 and M3 function as switching pair driven by LO. Thus the drain current of M1 is multiplied by the square wave of LO. The product is routed to the two resistors R1 and R2 by the switching pair alternatively. The proper choice of MOS width by length ratio will affect the drain current from the transcoductance stage.

The width by length ratio of the mixing stage MOS are kept half of the transconductance stage.

The gain of the mixer is given by: 2 gain = g m R d π Here the coefficient 2⁄π comes due to switching. Increasing the current through transconductance stage will increase g m and hence the gain of mixer. To increase current in transconductance stage we will also have to increase current through mixing stage which will increase noise figure of the mixer. We have to choose current through the mixer as a tradeoff between noise performance and gain.

Fig. 2: Block diagram of single balanced mixer [11]

III. SIMULATION RESULTS OF SINGLE BALANCED MIXER After the design of single balanced mixer simulation is performed on design with the help of spectre simulator of cadence virtuoso.

Fig 3 shows graph of conversion gain. Fig 4 shows graph of output referred 1 dB compression point. Fig 5 shows graph of output referred IP3 point. Fig 6 Shows graph of noise figure.

Fig. 3: Graph of Conversion gain

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Design of Single and Double Balanced Gilbert Cell Mixer using CMOS Processing Technology (IJSTE/ Volume 3 / Issue 10 / 072)

Fig. 4: Graph of output referred 1 dB compression point

Fig. 5: Graph of Output referred IP3 point

Fig. 6: graph of noise figure

IV. DOUBLE BALANCED GILBERT CELL MIXER Gilbert cell mixer consists of two single-balanced mixers that couples differential LO signals into the same IF output. At the mixer stage, the IF output is now connected to two switching transistors with 180 degree phase difference between their respective LO signals, causing the LO leakage to cancel out. This topology therefore exhibits better port isolation than the single-balanced active mixer. The differential operation also rejects even order distortion. Viewed as two parallel Gilbert cells, this mixer is also linear as it processes only half of the signal.

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Design of Single and Double Balanced Gilbert Cell Mixer using CMOS Processing Technology (IJSTE/ Volume 3 / Issue 10 / 072)

Fig. 7: diagram of double balanced Gilbert cell mixer [11]

V. SIMULATION RESULTS OF DOUBLE BALANCED GILBERT CELL MIXER After the design of single balanced mixer simulation is performed on design and various parameters are obtained.

Fig. 8: Graph of conversion gain

Fig. 9: Graph of output referred 1 dB compression point

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Design of Single and Double Balanced Gilbert Cell Mixer using CMOS Processing Technology (IJSTE/ Volume 3 / Issue 10 / 072)

Fig. 10: Graph of Output referred IP3 point

Fig. 11: graph of noise figure

VI. COMPARISON Table 1 shows comparison between single and double balanced mixer and it shows that all parameters are improve in double balanced mixer.

Table - 1 Comparison between two mixers Parameter Single balanced mixer Conversion gain (dB) 2.86 Output referred 1 db compression point (dBm) -0.93 Output referred IP3 point (dBm) 9.15 Noise figure (dB) 7.77

Double balanced mixer 8.70 5.97 16.77 7.53

VII. CONCLUSION From the comparison table it can be concluded that in double balanced mixer conversion gain and linearity parameters are improved along with noise figure of system is also improved.

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Design of Single and Double Balanced Gilbert Cell Mixer using CMOS Processing Technology (IJSTE/ Volume 3 / Issue 10 / 072)

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