In this work, we describe the complete design flow of a 1.3–3.3-GHz active balun, exploited to generate a high-voltage swing differential local oscillator (LO) signal driving a highly linear doubly balanced resistive ring mixer. Both the LO active balun and the mixer are integrated into a Ku-band single chip monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC) downconverter for the state-of-the-art telecom satellites. System performance has been maximized designing the different circuits by a holistic approach, which considers a non 50- $\Omega $ environment. The experimental validation is carried out by means of an ad hoc time-domain load–pull test bench and shows that the LO active balun provides two quasi-sinusoidal, 180 $^{\circ}$ out-phased, signals with 2.4-V peak-to-peak voltage to the input ports of the mixer over a very high-impedance loading condition.
Active Balun Design for Next-Generation Telecom Satellite Frequency Converters
Bosi G.;Raffo A.;Vannini G.
2022
Abstract
In this work, we describe the complete design flow of a 1.3–3.3-GHz active balun, exploited to generate a high-voltage swing differential local oscillator (LO) signal driving a highly linear doubly balanced resistive ring mixer. Both the LO active balun and the mixer are integrated into a Ku-band single chip monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC) downconverter for the state-of-the-art telecom satellites. System performance has been maximized designing the different circuits by a holistic approach, which considers a non 50- $\Omega $ environment. The experimental validation is carried out by means of an ad hoc time-domain load–pull test bench and shows that the LO active balun provides two quasi-sinusoidal, 180 $^{\circ}$ out-phased, signals with 2.4-V peak-to-peak voltage to the input ports of the mixer over a very high-impedance loading condition.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.