30 GHz CMOS Self-Oscillating Mixer for Self-Heterodyne Receiver Application

A 30 GHz CMOS-based self-oscillating mixer (SOM) is demonstrated for millimeter-wave self-heterodyne receiver applications. When injection-locked by transmitted LO carrier, the SOM provides constant and sufficient LO power for mixing process independent of transmitted LO power level. The SOM based on the cross-coupled VCO architecture is realized in 0.13 mu m CMOS process. It has down-conversion loss of about 30 dB and requires the minimum LO injection power of -32 dBm.