Base station mixer

Maxim has introduced the MAX2031, claimed to be the industry's highest performance, fully integrated, 815 to 1000 MHz SiGe passive mixer.

This single IC provides 36 dBm of IIP3, 27 dBm of IP1dB, 7 dB noise figure, and a conversion loss of 7 dB.

In addition, it exhibits good 2nd- and 3rd-order spurious suppression.

Designed for 2.5G/3G wireless-infrastructure applications, the device delivers a combination of linearity, noise performance, and component integration. It is suitable for 815 to 1000 MHz WCDMA, GSM850/GSM900 EDGE, CDMA 2000 and iDEN base station applications where high linearity and low noise figure are critical for enhanced receiver and transmitter performance.

The device offers a wide DC to 250 MHz IF frequency range with a 960 to 1180 MHz high-side LO injection range.

The mixer integrates a double-balanced mixer core with an LO amplifier, two baluns, an LO switch, plus dozens of discrete components.

Frequency hopping is supported with the integrated SPDT LO switch with switching speeds of less than 50 ns and 49 dB of LO10-to-LO2 isolation. The onboard 0 dBm drive, LO buffer provides ±3 dB drive-variance control, yielding stable gain, NF, and IIP3 performance over temperature, supply and input power.