Custom MMIC announced a new technical brief illuminating their progress reaching incredible linearity with passive MMIC mixers using GaN technology.
Over the past year, mixer experts at Custom MMIC have been exploring the use of GaN processes to achieve extremely linear RF mixers. Deducing that the high linearity performance of GaN power amplifiers may cross over to other critical microwave components, Custom MMIC engineers have gone through several iterations of GaN technologies and mixer typologies with several foundry partners.
The fruits of their efforts led to passive GaN mixer designs that surpass all GaAs passive mixer designs, measured by the ratio of input third-order intercept point (IIP3) to local oscillator (LO) drive — a figure-of-merit Custom MMIC is coining as "linear efficiency." From S-Band to K-Band (2 to 19 GHz), these new passive GaN mixers are demonstrating IIP3 figures well above 30 dBm, LO drive levels around 20 dBm and linear efficiencies above 10 dB.
Download and read the tech brief, “Reach New Levels of Linearity in Passive Mixers with GaN Technology.”