Analysis of 25% duty-cycle up-conversion passive mixer for UWB transmitter

The performance of differential up-conversion passive mixer operating in the 3–5 GHz band for UWB transmitter driven by 25% duty-cycle clocks is studied and analyzed. A reasonably accurate LTI equivalent circuit accounting for harmonics is derived. We have demonstrated that the conversion gain, input and output impedances of the proposed LTI equivalent circuit matches those of the LTV up-conversion passive mixer. The LTI model can be used to define the reachable design space. The mixer input and output impedance can be tuned by varying resistor at the mixer output allowing for impedance match to connected circuits. We have shown how each design parameters impacts critical performance of the up-conversion passive mixer. Simulations of the proposed up-conversion passive mixer show −3.68 dB of conversion gain, 15.9 dBm of OIP3, 116.7dBm of OIP2 and a NF as low as 5.2 dB while consuming 1.5 pW. Furthermore linearity and ports isolation performances due to voltage threshold mismatch variation of ±60 mV shows an OIP3 greater than 15.85dBm and an LO_RF isolation smaller than −51.9 dB.