A Broadband Fully-Distributed Mixer-First Receiver Achieving 40-128 GHz RF Bandwidth

This work presents a broadband mixer-first receiver implemented in a fully distributed topology that employs polyphase harmonic-cancellation to realize octuple local oscillation (LO) signal generation with multi-octave bandwidth. A three stage, transformer-based passive quadrature signal-generation network and a distributed active balun are implemented to provide accurate polyphase signals over a broad frequency range. Fully distributed push-push quadrupler and doubler stages achieve frequency octupling across a 32–156 GHz instantaneous bandwidth. Moreover, a distributed active mixer is co-designed with the distributed LO generator to ensure broad RF coverage. The resulting fully distributed mixer-first receiver covers 40–128 GHz RF bandwidth, achieving a peak conversion gain of –7.6 dB with a total DC power consumption of 122 mW, enabling instantaneous access to a wide spectrum.