Complementary bipolar harmonic mixer
View Patent ↗A 3-terminal harmonic mixer which solves the conversion gain, port impedance and isolation problems associated with known harmonic mixers. In particular, the 3-terminal harmonic mixer in accordance with the present invention provides harmonically pumped anti-parallel diode mixing operation by utilizing the inherent characteristics of complementary transistors.
1. A harmonic mixer comprising:
a pair of complementary transistors coupled together;
an input port; and
an output port.
2. The harmonic mixer as recited in claim 1 , wherein said pair of transistors are bipolar transistors.
3. The harmonic mixer as recited in claim 2 , wherein said bipolar transistors are homojunction bipolar junction transistors.
4. The harmonic mixer as recited in claim 2 , wherein said bipolar transistors are heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT).
5. The harmonic mixer as recited in claim 1 , wherein said pair of transistors are metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors.
6. The harmonic mixer as recited in claim 1 , wherein said pair of transistor high electron mobility transistors (HEMT).
7. A harmonic mixer comprising:
a pair of complementary bipolar transistors defining first and second base terminals coupled together and defining an input port; first and second collector terminals coupled together with a capacitor disposed between said first and second collector terminals; and first and second emitter terminals coupled together and connected to ground; and
an output port.
8. A harmonic mixer comprising:
a pair of complementary bipolar transistors defining first and second base terminals coupled together and defining an input port; first and second collector terminals coupled together with a capacitor disposed between said first and second collector terminals; and first and second emitter terminals coupled together and connected to ground;
an output port; and
a first filter connected to said output port, said filter having an output which defines an intermediate frequency (IF) port.
9. The harmonic mixer as recited in claim 8 , wherein said first filter is a low pass filter.
10. A harmonic mixer comprising:
a pair of complementary bipolar transistors defining first and second base terminals coupled together and defining an input port; first and second collector terminals coupled together with a capacitor disposed between said first and second collector terminals; and first and second emitter terminals coupled together and connected to ground;
an output port;
a first filter connected to said output terminal, said filter having an output which defines an intermediate frequency (IF) port; and
a second filter having an input defining a local oscillator (LO) input port connected to said input port.
11. The harmonic mixer as recited in claim 10 , wherein said input port is also connected to a third filter having an input port defining an RF input port.
12. The harmonic mixer as recited in claim 11 , wherein said second filter is a bandpass filter for passing a predetermined LO frequency.
13. The harmonic mixer as recited in claim 12 , wherein said third filter is a bandpass filter for passing a predetermined RF frequency.
14. A harmonic mixer comprising:
a pair of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors defining first and second gate terminals coupled together and defining an input port; first and second source terminals coupled together with a capacitor disposed between said first and second source terminals; and first and second drain terminals coupled together and connected to ground, and
an output port.
15. A harmonic mixer comprising:
a pair of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors defining first and second gate terminals coupled together and defining an input port; first and second source terminals coupled together with a capacitor disposed between said first and second source terminals; and first and second drain terminals coupled together and connected to ground;
an output port; and
a first filter connected to said output port, said filter having an output which defines an intermediate frequency (IF) port.
16. The harmonic mixer as recited in claim 15 , wherein said first filter is a low pass filter.
17. A harmonic mixer comprising:
a pair of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors defining first and second gate terminals coupled together and defining an input port; first and second source terminals coupled together with a capacitor disposed between said first and second source terminals; and first and second drain terminals coupled together and connected to ground;
an output port;
a first filter connected to said output port, said filter having an output which defines an intermediate frequency (IF) port; and
a second filter having an input defining a local oscillator (LO) input port connected to said input port.
18. The harmonic mixer as recited in claim 17 , wherein said input port is also connected to a third filter having an input port defining an RF input port.
19. The harmonic mixer as recited in claim 18 , wherein said second filter is a bandpass filter for passing a predetermined LO frequency.
20. The harmonic mixer as recited in claim 19 , wherein said third filter is a bandpass filter for passing a predetermined RF frequency.