MINIATURIZED 3-DIMENSIONAL MMIC K-BAND UP-CONVERTER

A miniaturized K-band balanced upconverter that effectively uses the t hree-dimensional monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) struct ure is presented in this paper. This upconverter consists of two unit mixers with stacked matching circuits and a newly developed Marchand b alun. This balun is composed of two broad-side couplers and realizes a great reduction in circuit area. Each component's area is less than 0 .13 mm(2), resulting in a total area of only 0.55 mm(2). This three-di mensional MMIC upconverter achieves conversion gains of greater than 1 dB and local oscillator (LO) leakage suppression rates of greater tha n 30 dB over the 17-18.5-GHz frequency band.