M.Eng Hapsah Aulia Azzahra

in English

The D-band frequency is gaining significant attention for 6G application due to its wide available bandwidth and small antenna size. However, receiver front-end design at these frequencies is extremely challenging due to high path loss, severe LO phase noise, device limitations, and strong adjacent interference, requiring high linearity and low noise figure (NF).

Currently, there is growing interest in designing receivers without a dedicated LNA to reduce power consumption and chip area. In such architectures, the down-conversion mixer becomes a critical block, directly impacting system’s linearity, NF, dynamic range, and image rejection performance. Achieving both high linearity and low NF at D-band frequencies is difficult due to limited gain, reduced voltage headroom, and layout sensitivity.

This thesis aims to design and evaluate a high-linearity and low NF down-conversion mixer targeting the D-band, and to compare its standalone performance with conventional LNA plus mixer architecture, particularly linearity and noise figure.

Task
- Design a high linearity and low noise figure down conversion mixer.
- Compare the performances between the proposed mixer and conventional LNA plus mixer architecture.
- Design a layout and validate the performance.

Requirements
Good understanding of circuits (RFE, RFICS)

Description as pdf