Noise in Mixers and Frequency Converters

Suat KURT
Electronics Engineering Faculty
stanbul Technical University
kurtsu@itu.edu.tr

Abstract
A mixer is used to create new frequencies from two
signals that is applied to its input. After the
operation the new frequency can be f1+f2 or f1-f2,
and also such devices are called as heterodyns. In
this paper, mixers are revised a little bit, they are
put into basic categories and their noise behavior is
tried to be investigated.
1.

2.

Mixer Fundamentals

A down-converter mixers duty is to convert the RF

input signal into an IF output signal. The block
diagram of the conversion can be seen below.

Introduction

Almost all of the m odern communication systems

use a mixer and the performance of this mixer
highly remarkable at the overall system
performance. Moreover, the term mixer is used
since the super-heterodyne technique was found.
The term is not suitable with the job that a mixer
does, because a mixer actually multiplies the
signals in pair rather than linearly mixing or adding
them. At the receiver the duty of mixer is to convert
a high frequency signal, (such as RF), into a low
frequency signal (such as IF). (Papananos, 1999)
Frequency conversion is an essential technique in
radio transceiver designs. (YELTEN, 2015)
Generally, a mixers duty is up-conversion, downconversion, multiplying and dividing in radio
systems. Also mixers are needed for frequency
conversion in transceivers and with the amplifiers
and the filters; these three components are one of
the most used radio frequency components. (U.
Tietze C. S., 1991 ) Especially in receivers, the
mixer has a very significant role, because the RF
signal at the input of the mixer is only amplified by
an LNA, so that, low noise figure, high linearity,
and low power consumption need to be guaranteed
by mixer. (U. Alvarado, 2011) A mixer symbol is
seen below, and as it is mentioned the high
frequency RF signal and Local Oscillator signal is
multiplied and as a result the IF signal is obtained.
(U. Alvarado, 2011)

Figure 1: Basic Mixer (U. Alvarado, 2011)

Also the block diagram below shows how the

signals are multiplied and the formulas of the
multiplication.

Figure 2: Block Diagram of a mixer multiplication (upconversion)

Moreover the formula below gives the output IF

signal, and in the formula A and B are the
magnitudes of the LO and RF by order.

(2.1)
It also can easily be understood that multiplication
in the time domain means convolution in the
frequency domain.
3.

Mixer Types

Mixers can be basically divided into two parts as

active mixers and passive mixers.

4.1.1.

Noise Due to the Load

The noise contribution of a mixer load is dependent

on the load type. If a mixer is loaded by a resistive
R element, then the noise contribution of the load
can be given by a famous formula:
2

n =4 kTR (4.1)

Figure 3: Mixer Topologies and their non-linearities

4.

In order to find the input referred noise of that

resistance, (4.1) is needed to divide by the
conversion gain which is the given formula below:

Noise in Mixers

Mixer noise is generally results from the RF

transconductance stage, which draws parallels with
standard differential pair noise theory. On the other
hand, the switching activity in the mixer provides
frequency translation for both signal of interest and
the noise, which is not wanted. Also this is a
phenomenon which is called as noise folding. As a
result of this situation, it can be encountered with
higher spectral noise density in some sections of the
spectrum. Noise can be resulted from any the three
components in a mixer: the load, the input
transconductance and the switches. (C. Toumazou,
2002)
4.1. Noise of Single Balanced Mixers
In this chapter of the paper the noise of single
balanced mixer will be investigated.

(4.2
Where Gm is the transconductance of the RF input
differential pair which is formulated as;

(4.3)

Also conversion gain, which is described as The

power conversion gain of a mixer is defined as the
IF power delivered to the load divided by the
available RF power from the source (D. Leenaerts,
2001.), can be founded by the formula below:

Power Load
I
ConversionGain=
= output
Power Source
I input

( )

Rload
(4.4)
Rsource

(C. Toumazou, 2002)

In here another crucial point is the consideration of
the flicker noise particularly in the direct
conversion of low IF receiver. Any flicker noise in
such designs the flicker noise can greatly
deteriorate the desired signal. Unless active loads
are not used in the system, polysilicon resistor loads
are generally free from flicker noise.
4.1.2.

Figure 4: Single Balanced Mixer (C. Toumazou, 2002)

Noise Due to the nput Transconductor

In the input of the RF transconductor, noise can not

be separated from the desired signal. Hence it will
be translated into the same frequency as the RF
signal. Also the transconductor at the input can
amplify bot the white noise and the flicker noise,
and also in practice the non-ideal switching can be
resulted from the turn on and off of the transistor
before or after than they should be. But these

problems can be achieved easily with a welldesigned mixer. When it comes to the input referred
drain current thermal noise contribution of the
transconductor (M1) is

And for a short channel device this is divided by 2

and finally input referred flicker noise of switches
can be derived as

4 kT
n =
( 4.5)
gm 1
2

When we multiply this formula with the conversion

gain of the single balanced mixer, while considering
the multiple harmonics of LO, the output thermal
noise contribution of the M1 transistor is given by
the formula;

n2=

4 kT 2
1 1
gm 1 R (1+ 2 + 2 + ..)(4.6)
gm 1
3 5

The last term in the equation 4.6 models the

contributions of the LO harmonics, and if the
higher order harmonics of the LO does not taken
into account while making calculations, the noise
figure could be missed by a few decibels.
Moreover, the number of harmonics that is needed
to be taken into account is decided by the
bandwidth of the RF stage of the mixer.
4.1.3.

gm
2
=
(4.9)
I D v GSv T

Noise due to the switches

In the noise contribution of switches, again the

flicker noise is a potentially significant problem.
The noise current of the output can be shown as
follow

(4.10)

(C. Toumazou, 2002)

4.2. Noise Figure of Mixers
The noise gure of downconversion mixers is often
a source of great confusion. For simplicity; let us
consider a noiseless mixer with unity gain. The
spectrum sensed by the RF port consists of a signal
component and the thermal noise of RS in both the
signal band and the image band. Upon
downconversion, the signal, the noise in the signal
band, and the noise in the image band are translated
to IF. Thus, the output SNR is half the input SNR
if the two noise components have equal powers,
i.e., the mixer exhibits a at frequency response at
its input from the image band to the signal band.
(Razavi, 2012)
Below it is shown that the noise figure of single
side band and double side band noise figures.

(4.7)
Where ID1 is the drain current of M1 and S LO is the
slope of the LO waveform at zero crossing, TLO is
the period and vnLO is the flicker noise of the
switches of M2 and M3 referred to the gate of the
M2. When equation 4.7 is divided by conversion
transconductance
Figure 5: Single side band noise figure (Razavi, 2012)

(4.8)

This formula can be obtained and for a mosfet

overcome. The aim of this paper is to examine the

noise behavior of mixers and some of the mixers
have investigated.
6.

REFERANCES
7.

Figure 6: Double Side Band Noise Figure (Razavi, 2012)

4.2.1.

Observations about the Noise Figure

There are some observation below about the noise

figure of mixers:
1-A passive MOS mixer has flicker noise even if
there is not a DC current in the transistors
2-Increasing the size of the MOS switches,
increases the overlap capacitances, and the RF
currents because of the LO circulation in the mixer.
Hence the noise will increase.
3- The input referred noise of the first IF op-amp
can be strongly amplified if the LO signal causes
the opposing mixer paths to be ON at the same
time. This is a direct function of the common-mode
DC level in the mixer (as set by the IF op-amp) and
the mean DC of the LO drive. It is not a strong
function of LO frequency.
5.

Conclusion

As a result mixers are essential devices for RF

electronics, because in order to receive or transmit a
signal they make the work to carry the signal into
the desired bandwidth. Also, as long as this kind of
transmission is used probably the mixer will
continue to exist. Moreover, one of the main
problems in mixers, which is noise needed to be

Kaynaka

C. Toumazou, G. M. (2002). TRADE-OFFS IN

CMOS MIXER DESIGN. G. M. C.
Toumazou iinde, Trade-offs in analog
circuit design (s. 813). . Boston: Kluwer
Academic Publishers.
D. Leenaerts, J. T. (2001.). Mixers. Circuit design
for RF transceivers (s. 114). iinde
Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Papananos, Y. E. (1999). Radio-Frequency
Microelectronic Circuits for
Telecommunication Applications. New
York: Springer Science+Business Media.
Razavi, B. (2012). Mixers. B. Razavi iinde, RF
microelectronics (s. 344). Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
U. Alvarado, G. B. (2011). Mixer Design. G. B. U.
Alvarado iinde, Low power RF circuit
design in standard CMOS technology (s.
128). Berlin: Springer.
U. Tietze, C. S. (1991 ). Mixers. C. S. U. Tietze
iinde, Electronic circuits (s. 1363).
Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
YELTEN, M. (2015). Noise in Electronic Circuits
and Systems. Noise in Mixer. stanbul.