A 6–20 GHz Adaptive SiGe Image Reject Mixer for a Self-Healing Receiver

A wideband (6–20 GHz) Silicon-Germanium (SiGe) adaptive image-reject mixer with an intermediate frequency (IF) of 1.8 GHz is presented. The mixer can be “self-healed” to deliver consistent performance by nullifying the effects of process variations, environmental changes, or aging. Various performance metrics of the mixer can also be adapted to different specifications across multiple frequency bands. A conversion gain greater than 15 dB, an image rejection ratio (IRR) exceeding 35 dB, and an output 1-dB compression point greater than 10 dBm, were obtained in measurement. An automated self-healing procedure is developed and shown to be effective for improving the measured performance of the mixer. The mixer was fabricated in a 150 GHz peakfT, 200 nm SiGe BiCMOS process technology and consumes 215 mA of current operating off a 4 V rail.