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| Ideal mixers | |||||||||||||
| This is a modeling exercise. I wanted to understand better what are the differences between various mixer configurations. | |||||||||||||
| How much attenuation and how source resistance will change. I had a direct conversion SSB and CW receiver in mind when doing this. | |||||||||||||
| I modeled multiple mixer configurations with almost ideal switches. See the summary and its links below. | |||||||||||||
| Local oscillator signal was square wave and switches ideal relays with 1ohm on-resistance and 1megaohm off-resistance. | |||||||||||||
| Analog CMOS-switches today come close to these ideal switches except on-resistance is still higher. | |||||||||||||
| The results of each mixer type are summarized on respective pages. I have listed | |||||||||||||
| change of source resistance, or mixer output resistance in comparison to RF generators source resistance | |||||||||||||
| mixer voltage gain when mixer load resistance is infinite | |||||||||||||
| total power gain, dB-sum of those two | |||||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||||
| Voltage gain | Change of source | Total power gain | Theoretical voltage | ||||||||||
| Mixer configuration | infinite load resist. | resistance | gain, infinite load | ||||||||||
| on/off-ratio | dB | multiplier | dB | dB | dB | ||||||||
| Clamp | 50/50 | -4.0 | 2 | -3.1 | -7.1 | -3.922 | |||||||
| Serial | 50/50 | -4.0 | 2 | -3.1 | -7.1 | -3.922 | |||||||
| Serial | 25/75 | -1.0 | 4 | -6.1 | -7.1 | -0.912 | |||||||
| as a quadrature mixer | 4 x 25/75 | 5.0 | to I and Q | 8 | -9.1 | -4.1 | to I and Q | 5.108 | |||||
| Serial | 12.5/87.5 | -0.3 | 8 | -9.1 | -9.4 | -0.224 | |||||||
| Push-pull | 2 x 50/50 | -3.9 | 1 | -0.1 | -4.0 | -3.922 | |||||||
| as a quadrature mixer | 4 x 25/75 | 5.0 | to I and Q | 8 | -9.1 | -4.1 | to I and Q | 5.108 | |||||
| Doubler | 2 x 50/50 | 2.1 | 4 | -6.1 | -4.0 | 2.098 | |||||||
| Doubler | 2 x 25/75 | 5.1 | 8 | -9.1 | -4.1 | 5.108 | |||||||
| Doubler | 2 x 12.5/87.5 | 5.8 | 16 | -12.1 | -6.4 | 5.796 | |||||||
| Conclusions | |||||||||||||
| Cutting LO duty cycle to half doubles mixer source (output) resistance. | |||||||||||||
| Shortening LO duty cycle increases voltage gain, mixer becomes more like a peak detector. | |||||||||||||
| Conversion gain of a mixer remains almost constant between 50/50 and 25/75 on/off-ratios. | |||||||||||||
| Therefore it is possible to get better conversion gain in a quadarature mixer than in basic mixer by combining | |||||||||||||
| the outputs in a proper way. | |||||||||||||
| In case of quadrature mixer, push-pull configuration do not provide any improvement over serial mixer. | |||||||||||||
| Voltage attenuation of serial switch mixer is defined by integral over switch on-time divided by on-time in radians. | |||||||||||||
| Calculations were done after the modeling and are shown on a separate page. The results are shown in the summary above. | |||||||||||||
| How much distortion then ? That was not analyzed here but could be another exercise some day.. | |||||||||||||
| Pekka, OH1TV | 24.12.2009 | ||||||||||||
| Back to projects page | |||||||||||||