Patent ID: 11742801

Abstract:
A travelling wave mixer (TWM) is provided that includes an input artificial transmission line configured to transmit an input signal, an output artificial transmission line configured to transmit an output signal, a local oscillator (LO) artificial transmission line configured to transmit an LO signal, and a plurality of mixer stages connected in parallel between the output artificial transmission and the input artificial transmission line. Each of the mixer stages includes an input amplifier, a mixer and an output amplifier connected in series between the input artificial transmission line and the output artificial transmission line, where an input of the mixer receives an output of the input amplifier, and an output of the mixer is applied to an input of the output amplifier. Further, each of the mixer stages includes a phase-adjustable LO amplifier circuit connected between the LO artificial transmission line and an LO input of the mixer, where the phase-adjustable LO amplifier is configured to adjust an LO signal phase applied to the LO input of each mixer to null out a phase error in each mixer stage independently.