Design and Optimization of A Direct-Conversion Double-Balanced Mixer for RF Receiver Front-End

Differential implementation is becoming highly favoured in RFIC (radio frequency integrated circuit) design, notably its high immunity to common-mode noises, acceptable rejection of parasitic coupling, and increased dynamic range. One specific RF front-end building block that is usually designed as a differential circuit is the mixer. This technical paper presents a study of a differential mixer, notably the double-balanced mixer implemented on a direct-conversion architecture in a standard 90nm CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) process. Operating frequency is set at 5GHz, which is a typical frequency for RF (radio frequency) receiver. Impedance matching was essential to fully optimize the mixer design. The direct-conversion double-balance mixer design eventually achieved conversion gain of 11.463dB and noise figure of 16.529dB, comparable to mixer designs from past research and studies.