Frequency Mixers, Transceivers

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a frequency mixer, comprising: a transconductance circuit connected to an input signal end and configured to generate a differential signal based on an input signal at the input signal end and output the differential signal to a first output end and a second output end; a switch circuit connected to a local oscillation signal end and the first output end and the second output end of the transconductance circuit and configured to mix a local oscillation signal at the local oscillation signal end and the differential signal to generate a frequency mixed signal and output the frequency mixed signal to the first output end and the second output end; a load circuit connected to an output signal end and configured to provide a load; and an amplifier circuit connected between the switch circuit and the load circuit and configured to amplify the frequency mixed signal. The present disclosure further provides a transceiver.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] This application claims priority to Patent No. 202110591105.9 filed with the China Patent Office on May 28, 2021, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. The present disclosure relates to the technical field of frequency mixers, but is not limited thereto. [Background technology]

[0002] With the development of mobile communication technology (e.g., the fifth generation mobile communication 5G), the requirements for information transmission speed, latency, reliability, etc. are becoming higher, and beamforming and massive antenna arrays (Massive MIMO) are two important technologies to realize the above requirements. Summary of the Invention

[0003] The present disclosure provides a frequency mixer, a transceiver. In a first aspect, the present disclosure provides a method for producing a method for manufacturing a method for ... semiconductor device, comprising: a transconductance circuit connected to an input signal terminal, configured to generate a differential signal based on an input signal of the input signal terminal, and output the differential signal to a first output terminal and a second output terminal; a switch circuit connected to a local oscillation signal terminal and a first output terminal and a second output terminal of the transconductance circuit, configured to mix a local oscillation signal at the local oscillation signal terminal with the differential signal to generate a frequency mixed signal, and output the frequency mixed signal to the first output terminal and the second output terminal; a load circuit coupled to the output signal end and configured to provide a load; an amplifier circuit connected between the switch circuit and a load circuit and configured to amplify the frequency-mixed signal; A frequency mixer is provided. The amplifier circuit includes: a common gate circuit including a first transistor device and a second transistor device having gates coupled to each other, the first transistor device having a source connected to a first output terminal of the switch circuit and a drain connected to a first output terminal of the amplifier circuit, and the second transistor device having a source connected to a second output terminal of the switch circuit and a drain connected to a second output terminal of the amplifier circuit; a common source circuit including a third transistor device and a fourth transistor device whose sources are coupled to each other, the third transistor device having a gate coupled to the first output terminal of the switch circuit and a drain coupled to the second output terminal of the amplifier circuit, and the fourth transistor device having a gate coupled to the second output terminal of the switch circuit and a drain coupled to the first output terminal of the amplifier circuit. . In a second aspect, the present disclosure provides a transceiver comprising the frequency mixer described above. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0004] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of a frequency mixer in the related art. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of another frequency mixer in the related art. [Diagram 3] FIG. 3 is a configuration block diagram of a frequency mixer according to the present disclosure. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram of a frequency mixer according to the present disclosure. [Diagram 5] FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of another frequency mixer according to the present disclosure. [Figure 6] FIG. 6 is a configuration block diagram of a transceiver according to the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0005] In order to enable those skilled in the art to better understand the technical solutions of the present disclosure, the following provides a detailed description of a frequency mixer and a transceiver according to embodiments of the present disclosure in combination with the drawings.

[0006] The present disclosure will be fully described below with reference to the drawings, but the illustrated embodiments may be embodied in different forms, and the present disclosure should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments described below. Rather, these embodiments are provided to make the present disclosure thorough and complete, and to allow those skilled in the art to fully understand the scope of the present disclosure.

[0007] The drawings of the embodiments of the present disclosure are used to further understand the embodiments of the present disclosure, constitute a part of the specification, and are for interpreting the present disclosure together with the detailed embodiments, and are not intended to constitute limitations on the present disclosure. The above and other features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent to those skilled in the art by describing the detailed embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0008] Each embodiment and each feature in the embodiments of the present disclosure can be combined with each other unless they are inconsistent.

[0009] The terms used in this disclosure are merely for the purpose of describing certain embodiments and are not intended to limit the disclosure. For example, the term "and / or" as used in this disclosure includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. As used in this disclosure, the singular forms "a" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. As used in this disclosure, the terms "comprising" and "consisting of" specify the presence of the stated features, wholes, steps, operations, elements, and / or components, but do not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, wholes, steps, operations, elements, components, and / or groups thereof.

[0010] Unless otherwise limited, all terms used in this disclosure, including technical and scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by those skilled in the art. It is also understood that terms as defined in commonly used dictionaries should be interpreted to have a meaning consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and this disclosure, and should not be interpreted to have an ideal or overly formal meaning unless expressly so limited in this disclosure.

[0011] With the development of mobile communication technology (e.g., the fifth generation mobile communication 5G), the requirements for information transmission speed, latency, reliability, etc. are becoming higher, and beamforming and massive antenna arrays (Massive MIMO) are two important technologies to realize the above requirements.

[0012] Both of the above two technologies require the integration of a large front-end antenna array into the transceiver, which places extremely high demands on the linearity of the frequency mixer in the transceiver. In addition, the power consumption of the transceiver directly affects the battery life and operating cost, so it is desirable to reduce the power consumption as much as possible while maintaining high linearity.

[0013] However, conventional transceivers cannot satisfy the requirements in terms of power consumption, etc. In the related art, as shown in FIG. 1, a circuit diagram of a frequency mixer (active double-balanced Gilbert frequency mixer) mainly includes a transconductance circuit (transconductance stage), a switch circuit (switch stage), a load circuit (load stage), and an amplifier circuit (amplification stage) connected to the connection point between the load circuit and the switch circuit.

[0014] Here, the transconductance circuit may specifically be a common source transconductance circuit, and the amplifier circuit may specifically be an intermediate frequency amplifier circuit, for example, an intermediate frequency common source amplifier circuit (see FIG. 1) or an intermediate frequency transimpedance amplifier circuit (see FIG. 2).

[0015] However, in the above active double-balanced Gilbert frequency mixer, the amplifier circuit and other parts of the frequency mixer (the frequency mixer core) each have their own current I amp (That is, I in the figure amp1 +I amp2 ) and I core (That is, I in the figure core1 +I core2 ), the total current I total =I core +I amp That is, the amplifier circuit and other parts of the frequency mixer each have their own power consumption, which causes a problem that the power consumption of the entire frequency mixer becomes high.

[0016] In order to improve the linearity of the above active double-balanced Gilbert frequency mixer, a derivative superposition transconductance circuit can also be used, see FIG. 2, but the power consumption of the frequency mixer is still high.

[0017] In a first aspect, with reference to Figures 3 to 5, the present disclosure provides a frequency mixer. A frequency mixer according to the present disclosure is configured to mix an input signal with a local oscillator signal and may be used in transceivers such as communication transceivers (e.g., radio frequency millimeter wave communication transceivers, terahertz frequency band communication transceivers), radar transceivers, and the like.

[0018] For example, the frequency mixer may be used in a millimeter wave communication transceiver, and generates an intermediate frequency signal for baseband with a frequency equal to the subtraction of a radio frequency input signal and a local oscillator signal based on the radio frequency input signal and the local oscillator signal. Illustratively, the frequency of the input signal of the frequency mixer may be 26 GHz, the frequency of the local oscillator signal may be 22 GHz, and the frequency of the intermediate frequency signal (baseband signal) generated thereby is 4 GHz.

[0019] Here, the specific implementation of the frequency mixer of the present disclosure may be varied, for example, it may be provided on an integrated circuit chip (IC), it may be provided on a conventional printed circuit board (PCB), or it may be a combination of real elements.

[0020] Referring to FIG. 3 , in some embodiments, the frequency mixer of the present disclosure includes: a transconductance circuit (transconductance stage) connected to an input signal terminal IN and configured to generate a differential signal based on an input signal at the input signal terminal IN and output the differential signal to a first output terminal (the left end in the figure) and a second output terminal (the right end in the figure); a switch circuit (switch stage) connected to a local oscillation signal terminal and a first output terminal and a second output terminal of the transconductance circuit and configured to mix a local oscillation signal at the local oscillation signal terminal and the differential signal to generate a frequency-mixed signal and output the frequency-mixed signal to the first output terminal (the left end in the figure) and a second output terminal (the right end in the figure); a load circuit (load stage) connected to an output signal terminal OUT and configured to provide a load; and an amplifier circuit (amplification stage) connected between the switch circuit and the load circuit and configured to amplify the frequency-mixed signal.

[0021] In the frequency mixer of the present disclosure, an input signal (e.g., a radio frequency signal) inputted from an input signal terminal IN is first converted into a differential signal by a transconductance circuit, then mixed (e.g., frequency subtracted) with a local oscillation signal (e.g., a radio frequency signal) inputted from a local oscillation signal terminal in a switch circuit to obtain a frequency mixed signal (e.g., an intermediate frequency signal), which is injected into an amplifier circuit (e.g., an intermediate frequency amplifier circuit) and amplified, and finally outputted from an output signal terminal OUT via a load circuit.

[0022] In the frequency mixer of the present disclosure, the amplifier circuit (intermediate frequency amplifier circuit) is not cascaded after the load circuit and the other parts of the frequency mixer (the frequency mixer core), but is "inserted" between the load circuit and the switch circuit, so that the amplifier circuit and the other parts of the frequency mixer are "current multiplexed", i.e., they share a common current (I total= I core =I amp ), the amplifier circuit does not actually consume any extra current, which significantly reduces the power consumption of the entire frequency mixer, extends battery life, and reduces operating costs.

[0023] In some embodiments, the transconductance circuit comprises a first transformer TF1.

[0024] In some embodiments, the first transformer TF1 includes a first primary coil having a first end connected to the input signal end IN and a second end connected to the ground end, and a first secondary coil having a first end and a second end connected to the first output end and the second output end of the transconductance circuit, respectively, and a center tap connected to the ground end.

[0025] 4 and 5, a transformer (first transformer TF1) can be adopted as a transconductance circuit in the present disclosure. Obviously, a transformer is a passive device, so the corresponding transconductance circuit is a passive transconductance circuit.

[0026] Furthermore, the first transformer TF1 may have a primary coil (first primary coil) directly connected between the input signal terminal IN and the ground terminal, and a secondary coil (first secondary coil) connected between the two output terminals of the transconductance circuit and having an intermediate tap, with the intermediate tap connected to the ground terminal, thereby allowing the first secondary coil to provide a DC path required for the operation of the entire frequency mixer.

[0027] Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, in some related art frequency mixers, both the transconductance circuit and the amplifier circuit actually affect the linearity, so that the linearity of the entire frequency mixer is reduced.

[0028] However, in the frequency mixer of the present disclosure, the transconductance circuit does not generate nonlinear distortion by directly using a passive transformer (first transformer TF1), thereby ensuring the linearity of the transconductance circuit portion and improving the linearity of the entire frequency mixer.

[0029] In addition, by rationally designing parameters such as the dimensions, number of turns, and coupling coefficient of the first primary coil and the first secondary coil, the impedance matching of the input signal terminal IN (e.g., a radio frequency port) can be easily realized, and the transformer can convert a single-ended input signal (e.g., a radio frequency signal) into a differential signal and suppress the even cross modulation components in the circuit.

[0030] In this disclosure, the switch circuit and the corresponding local oscillator signal terminal may take various forms. For example, referring to Figures 4 and 5, the switch circuit may use a Gilbert cell. The Gilbert cell includes a seventh transistor device M7, an eighth transistor device M8, a ninth transistor device M9, and a tenth transistor device M10. Here, the seventh transistor device M7 and the eighth transistor device M8 have gates connected to a first local oscillation signal terminal INLO+ (e.g., a positive terminal of a local oscillation signal), sources connected to two output terminals of a transconductance circuit, and drains connected to two output terminals of a switch circuit. In addition, the ninth transistor device M9 and the tenth transistor device M10 have gates both connected to the second local oscillation signal terminal INLO- (e.g., the negative terminal of the local oscillation signal), sources respectively connected to the two output terminals of the transconductance circuit (i.e., connected to the sources of the seventh transistor device M7 and the eighth transistor device M8, respectively), and drains respectively connected to the two output terminals of the switch circuit after crossing (i.e., connected to the drains of the eighth transistor device M8 and the seventh transistor device M7, respectively).

[0031] Here, the seventh transistor device M7, the eighth transistor device M8, the ninth transistor device M9, and the tenth transistor device M10 have the same dimensions, such as aspect ratio, and are all biased in the weak inversion region, so that the noise coefficient of the mixing process can be effectively reduced, the linearity can be improved, the leakage of the local oscillation signal can be reduced, and the local oscillation even harmonic components can be suppressed.

[0032] In some embodiments, the frequency mixer further comprises a filter capacitor Cp having a first pole connected to the first output of the switch circuit and a second pole connected to the second output of the switch circuit.

[0033] 4 and 5, a filter capacitor Cp may be further connected in parallel between the two output ends of the switch circuit (i.e., the two input ends of the amplifier circuit), and the harmonics (e.g., high-frequency harmonics) in the frequency mixed signal generated by the switching circuit and the spurious (e.g., high-frequency) generated by the mixing process are filtered before being input to the amplifier circuit, thereby further improving the linearity.

[0034] In some embodiments, the amplifier circuit includes a common gate circuit including a first transistor device M1 and a second transistor device M2 whose gates are coupled to each other, the first transistor device M1 having a source connected to a first output terminal of a switch circuit and a drain connected to a first output terminal (left end in the figure) of the amplifier circuit, and the second transistor device M2 having a source connected to a second output terminal of the switch circuit and a drain connected to a second output terminal (right end in the figure) of the amplifier circuit, and a common source circuit including a third transistor device M3 and a fourth transistor device M4 whose sources are coupled to each other, the third transistor device M3 having a gate coupled to a first output terminal of the switch circuit and a drain coupled to a second output terminal of the amplifier circuit, and the fourth transistor device M4 having a gate coupled to a second output terminal of the switch circuit and a drain coupled to a first output terminal of the amplifier circuit. Here, the common gate circuit (common- gate A common-source circuit is a circuit that uses a common gate structure throughout. source A common-source path (CSP) is a circuit that uses a common-source structure throughout.

[0035] In some embodiments, the gate of the first transistor device M1 is connected to a first pole of the first capacitor C1, the gate of the second transistor device M2 is connected to a first pole of the second capacitor C2, the second pole of the first capacitor C1 and the second pole of the second capacitor C2 are both connected to a ground terminal, the source of the third transistor device M3 and the source of the fourth transistor device M4 are both connected to a ground terminal, the gate of the third transistor device M3 is connected to a first pole of the third capacitor C3, the second pole of the third capacitor C3 is connected to a first output terminal of the switch circuit, the gate of the fourth transistor device M4 is connected to a first pole of the fourth capacitor C4, and the second pole of the fourth capacitor C4 is connected to a second output terminal of the switch circuit.

[0036] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, two structures are "coupled" to mean that the two structures are electrically connected to each other; for example, other devices may be provided on the leads between the two structures, or the two structures may be electrically connected to the same signal source.

[0037] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, two structures are "connected" to each other means that the two structures are directly connected by a lead without any device other than the lead, i.e., the electrical signals in the two structures are theoretically always equal.

[0038] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, a "transistor device" refers to a combination of one or more elements that may be electrically equivalent to (or perform the function of) a transistor.

[0039] In some embodiments, the transistor device is a field effect transistor or a triode.

[0040] Illustratively, the transistor devices may be in the form of field effect transistors (MOS) or triodes (e.g., bipolar transistors), e.g., an N-type field effect transistor (NMOS) may use an NPN type triode, and a P-type field effect transistor (PMOS) may use a PNP type triode.

[0041] Referring to FIG. 4, exemplarily, in the frequency mixer of the present disclosure, the amplifier circuit may include a common gate circuit and a common source circuit, the common gate circuit including transistor devices with gates coupled together, the common source circuit including transistor devices with sources coupled together, and the drains of each transistor device are respectively connected to two output terminals of the amplifier circuit.

[0042] Referring to Figures 1 and 2, in some frequency mixers of related technologies, whether an intermediate frequency transimpedance amplifier circuit or an intermediate frequency common source amplifier circuit is used, the input impedance in the intermediate frequency band is large, and the cascade connection impedance of the frequency mixer core is mismatched, resulting in large loss. In order to compensate for the loss in this part, it is necessary to increase the gain of the amplifier circuit, but this further increases the power consumption of the amplifier circuit.

[0043] In the present disclosure, impedance matching between the amplifier circuit and the switch circuit can be easily realized through the common gate circuit, reducing the loss of the cascaded connection and avoiding the extra power consumption caused to compensate for the loss of impedance mismatch.

[0044] In addition, by using an amplifier circuit with a two-stage circuit structure consisting of a common gate circuit and a common source circuit, the characteristics (e.g., bias voltage, aspect ratio, dimensions, etc.) of at least four transistor devices in the two-stage circuit can be adjusted so that the third-order nonlinear transconductance of the two-stage circuit has opposite polarity and the same amplitude, thereby realizing cancellation of the third-order transconductance at the combined node of the two-stage circuit and improving the linearity of the amplifier circuit.

[0045] Moreover, since the primary transconductances of the two-stage circuit are of the same polarity, this two-stage circuit structure can further provide a relatively large intermediate frequency gain to achieve sufficient amplitude amplification.

[0046] In this manner, by using a frequency mixer having a common gate circuit and a common source circuit, the power consumption of the frequency mixer can be further reduced and the linearity of the frequency mixer can be improved.

[0047] In some embodiments, the common source circuit is a common source-common gate circuit, further including a fifth transistor device M5 and a sixth transistor device M6 whose gates are coupled to each other, the drain of the third transistor device M3 being coupled to a second output of the amplifier circuit via the fifth transistor device M5, and the drain of the fourth transistor device M4 being coupled to a first output of the amplifier circuit via the sixth transistor device M6.

[0048] In some embodiments, the gate of the fifth transistor device M5 and the gate of the sixth transistor device M6 are both connected to a first pole of a fifth capacitor C5, and a second pole of the fifth capacitor C5 is connected to ground.

[0049] Referring to FIG. 5, the common source circuit in the amplifier circuit of the above-mentioned frequency mixer may further be a common source-common gate circuit, that is, the common source circuit further includes two transistor devices (the fifth transistor device M5 and the sixth transistor device M6) whose gates are coupled to each other, and the gates of the two transistor devices (the third transistor device M3 and the fourth transistor device M4) whose sources are coupled to each other are respectively connected to the two output ends of the amplifier circuit through them.

[0050] 5, in the amplifier circuit of the frequency mixer, the common gate circuit includes a first transistor device M1 and a second transistor device M2, the gates of the first transistor device M1 and the second transistor device M2 are grounded via a first capacitor C1 and a second capacitor C2, the sources of the first transistor device M1 and the second transistor device M2 are respectively connected to two output terminals of the switch circuit, and the drains of the first transistor device M1 and the second transistor device M2 are respectively connected to two output terminals of the amplifier circuit. Here, the first capacitor C1 and the second capacitor C2 are equivalent to supplying AC to the gates of the first transistor device M1 and the second transistor device M2, and can improve the gain.

[0051] The common source-common gate circuit includes a third transistor device M3 and a fourth transistor device M4 whose sources are coupled together, and a fifth transistor device M5 and a sixth transistor device M6 whose gates are coupled together, wherein the third transistor device M3 and the fourth transistor device M4 have their sources both grounded and their gates connected to two output ends of the switch circuit via a third capacitor C3 and a fourth capacitor C4, respectively, and the third capacitor C3 and the fourth capacitor C4 perform a cutoff function. The drains of the third transistor device M3 and the fourth transistor device M4 are connected to the two output terminals of the amplifier circuit via the fifth transistor device M5 and the sixth transistor device M6 (or in series with them), respectively (the drain of the third transistor device M3 is connected to the second output terminal, and the drain of the fourth transistor device M4 is connected to the first output terminal), and the gates of the fifth transistor device M5 and the sixth transistor device M6 are grounded via a fifth capacitor C5, which also plays a role in supplying AC to the gate of the fifth transistor device M5 to improve the gain.

[0052] In some embodiments, the load circuit includes an inductive load. In some embodiments, the inductive load is a second transformer TF2 and / or an inductance.

[0053] Referring to FIG. 5, the load circuit in the frequency mixer of the present disclosure may be a load having an "inductance characteristic", such as a transformer (eg, the second transformer TF2) or an inductance.

[0054] Here, since each inductive load corresponds to only one output signal terminal OUT, referring to FIG. 5, the inductive loads are respectively connected to the two output terminals of the amplifier circuit, and are also connected to the output signal terminal OUT and the ground terminal.

[0055] For example, when the inductive load is a second transformer TF2, both ends of its primary coil (second primary coil) are respectively connected to the two output terminals of the amplifier circuit, the intermediate tap is connected to the high-level terminal VDD, and both ends of its secondary coil (second secondary coil) are respectively connected to the output signal terminal OUT and the ground terminal.

[0056] Referring to Figures 1 and 2, in some related technologies, the amplifier circuit is divided into two, so when an inductive load is used, a separate inductive load is required corresponding to each amplifier circuit, that is, two inductive loads are required for the entire frequency mixer, which occupies a relatively large space and leads to an increase in the size of the frequency mixer (e.g., an increase in the size of a chip having a frequency mixer).

[0057] However, referring to FIG. 5, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, there is only one amplifier circuit, and it is located between the load circuit and the switch circuit. Therefore, even if the load circuit uses an inductive load, only one inductive load is required, and the dimensions of the frequency mixer (e.g., the dimensions of a chip with a frequency mixer) can be reduced.

[0058] Of course, referring to FIG. 4, the load circuit is not limited to an inductive load, but may include any other type of load, such as a resistive load, a parallel LRC (inductance-resistor-capacitor) load, an active load, etc.

[0059] Here, when the type of the load circuit is different, the position, number, etc. of the output signal terminal OUT may be different accordingly. For example, referring to Fig. 4, when the load circuit includes a first resistor R1 and a second resistor R2, the two resistors are respectively connected between the high level terminal VDD and two output terminals of the amplifier circuit, and the two output terminals of the amplifier circuit are simultaneously respectively connected to two output signal terminals, i.e., a first output signal terminal OUT+ (positive terminal of the output signal) and a second output signal terminal OUT- (negative terminal of the output signal).

[0060] In order to prove the effect of the frequency mixer of the present disclosure, a frequency mixer in the related art shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 and a frequency mixer in the embodiment of the present disclosure shown in FIG. 5 are manufactured, and the absolute power (unit: decibels / milliwatts dBm, characterizing the linearity of the frequency mixer) at a power consumption of 23 mW at an output of 1 dB compression point and the power consumption (unit: milliwatts, characterizing the power consumption of the frequency mixer) at the same output of 1 dB compression point (2 dBm) are measured, and the results are shown in Table 1 below.

[0061] [Table 1]

[0062] As can be seen from Table 1, when the power consumption is the same, the linearity of the frequency mixer according to the embodiment of the present disclosure is obviously superior to that of the frequency mixer in the related art (improved by more than 6 dB). When realizing the same 1 dB compression point output, the power consumption of the frequency mixer according to the embodiment of the present disclosure is much lower than that of the frequency mixer in the related art (reduced by 74% compared to the frequency mixer using the derivative superposition transconductance circuit and 81.5% compared to the active double-balanced Gilbert frequency mixer).

[0063] This proves that the frequency mixer according to the embodiment of the present disclosure can significantly improve the linearity of the output signal and significantly reduce the power consumption, thereby extending the battery life and reducing the usage cost. In addition, by using an inductive load, it is also possible to further reduce the size of the frequency mixer according to the embodiment of the present disclosure (e.g., the size of the chip with the frequency mixer).

[0064] In a second aspect, with reference to FIG. 6, the present disclosure provides a transceiver comprising the above frequency mixer.

[0065] By including the above-described frequency mixer, the transceiver of the present disclosure has high linearity, low power consumption, and small size.

[0066] In some embodiments, the transceiver is a communications transceiver or a radar transceiver.

[0067] By way of example, the transceiver may specifically be in the form of a communications transceiver (eg, a radio frequency millimeter wave communications transceiver, a terahertz frequency band communications transceiver), a radar transceiver, or the like.

[0068] Of course, the transceiver may be a transceiver used in other systems, or the frequency mixer may be used in other systems.

[0069] Although exemplary embodiments are disclosed in this disclosure, and specific terms are used, they should be used and interpreted in a general illustrative sense only, and not for the purpose of limitation. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that in some instances, features, characteristics, and / or elements described in connection with a particular embodiment may be used alone or in combination with features, characteristics, and / or elements described in other embodiments, unless otherwise specified. Thus, those skilled in the art will appreciate that changes in various forms and details may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure as set forth in the appended claims.

Claims

1. a transconductance circuit connected to an input signal terminal, configured to generate a differential signal based on an input signal of the input signal terminal, and output the differential signal to a first output terminal and a second output terminal; a switch circuit connected to a local oscillation signal terminal and a first output terminal and a second output terminal of the transconductance circuit, configured to mix a local oscillation signal at the local oscillation signal terminal with the differential signal to generate a frequency mixed signal, and output the frequency mixed signal to its first output terminal and second output terminal; a load circuit coupled to the output signal end and configured to provide a load; an amplifier circuit connected between the switch circuit and a load circuit and configured to amplify the frequency-mixed signal; The amplifier circuit includes: a common gate circuit including a first transistor device and a second transistor device having gates coupled to each other, the first transistor device having a source connected to a first output terminal of the switch circuit and a drain connected to a first output terminal of the amplifier circuit, and the second transistor device having a source connected to a second output terminal of the switch circuit and a drain connected to a second output terminal of the amplifier circuit; a common source circuit including a third transistor device and a fourth transistor device having sources coupled to each other, the third transistor device having a gate coupled to a first output terminal of the switch circuit and a drain coupled to a second output terminal of the amplifier circuit, and the fourth transistor device having a gate coupled to the second output terminal of the switch circuit and a drain coupled to the first output terminal of the amplifier circuit; Frequency mixer.

2. the transconductance circuit comprises a first transformer; 2. The frequency mixer of claim 1.

3. The first transformer is a first primary coil having a first end connected to the input signal end and a second end connected to a ground end; a first secondary coil having a first end and a second end connected to the first output end and the second output end of the transconductance circuit, respectively, and a center tap connected to the ground end; 3. The frequency mixer of claim 2.

4. a gate of the first transistor device is connected to a first pole of a first capacitor, a gate of the second transistor device is connected to a first pole of a second capacitor, and a second pole of the first capacitor and a second pole of the second capacitor are both connected to a ground terminal; a source of the third transistor device and a source of the fourth transistor device are both connected to the ground terminal, a gate of the third transistor device is connected to a first pole of a third capacitor, a second pole of the third capacitor is connected to a first output terminal of the switch circuit, a gate of the fourth transistor device is connected to a first pole of a fourth capacitor, and a second pole of the fourth capacitor is connected to a second output terminal of the switch circuit.

2. The frequency mixer of claim 1.

5. the common source circuit is a common source / common gate circuit; The common source-common gate circuit further includes a fifth transistor device and a sixth transistor device having gates coupled to each other, the drain of the third transistor device being coupled to a second output terminal of the amplifier circuit via the fifth transistor device, and the drain of the fourth transistor device being coupled to a first output terminal of the amplifier circuit via the sixth transistor device.

5. The frequency mixer of claim 4.

6. a gate of the fifth transistor device and a gate of the sixth transistor device are both connected to a first pole of a fifth capacitor, and a second pole of the fifth capacitor is connected to the ground terminal.

6. The frequency mixer of claim 5.

7. The first to fourth transistor devices are field effect transistors or triodes; 5. A frequency mixer according to claim 1 or 4.

8. The first to sixth transistor devices are field effect transistors or triodes.

7. A frequency mixer according to claim 5 or 6.

9. the load circuit includes an inductive load; 2. The frequency mixer of claim 1.

10. The inductive load is a second transformer and / or an inductance.

10. The frequency mixer of claim 9.

11. a filter capacitor having a first pole connected to the first output terminal of the switch circuit and a second pole connected to the second output terminal of the switch circuit; 2. The frequency mixer of claim 1.

12. A frequency mixer according to any one of claims 1 to 11, Transceiver.

13. The transceiver is a communications transceiver or a radar transceiver.

13. The transceiver of claim 12.

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