A 28 GHz and 38 GHz Dual-Band Up-Conversion Mixer for 5G Applications in 22 nm FD-SOI CMOS.

This paper investigates a dual-band direct up-conversion mixer operating at 5G millimeter-wave (mmW) bands. To prove the concept, the mixer is implemented in a 22nm FD-SOI technology. A Gilbert cell was applied for the mixer core to achieve a high local oscillator signal (LO) suppression. An active balun was integrated on-chip to manage and optimize the LO phase- and magnitude-mismatch. Dual-band and broadband matching networks enable dual-band operation. The mixer has a total power consumption of 38mW including the LO active balun, mixer core and RF output buffer. The measurements show a conversion gain of -2.6 dB and -1 dB and a 1-dB output compression point (oP(1dB)) of -2.5dBm and -0.6dBm at 28GHz and 38 GHz bands, respectively. The core area of the design is 0.24mm(2). The mixer compares well against other designs operating at 5G mmW bands by showing one of the highest oP1dB, a comparable conversion gain and power consumption. To the best knowledge of the authors, this is the first 5G dual-band up-conversion mixer from technology node 22nm and below.