Comparison of fourth-harmonic and combined doubler/subharmonic mixer with integrated MMIC based local oscillator

Abstract

In this paper a comparison between a fourth harmonic mixer and a combined doubler/subharmonic mixer based on Schottky diodes working at 300 GHz with MMIC Local Oscillator (LO) integrated in a single enclosing is presented. Both configurations allow reducing the LO requirements, since a lower LO frequency is used. In addition, the integration of the MMIC Local Oscillator with the mixer in the same single metallic block is the main novelty and advantage of this work. Since only one block is used, flange connections are avoided. This way, misalignment errors are also prevented. Besides this advantage, the compactness of this solution is also remarkable, leading to a significant weight reduction.