What are Single Balanced Mixers?
Single Balanced Mixers, or balanced mixers, are mixers that will suppress one of the RF or LO input signals. The input signals are generally not wanted at the output and normally they would be removed by filtering, which is inconvenient and adds additional cost and components to mixer. Single balanced mixers have a single balun or balancing circuit and provide isolation between LO and RF inputs to reduce intermodulation.
RF Mixers are nonlinear components that are used to up-convert or down-convert the frequency of a signal. They mix the frequency of the original signal (RF) with that of a Local Oscillator (LO) to produce two new signals at the sum RF + LO (up-converting) and difference RF – LO (down-converting) of the input frequencies.
Important Parameters for Single Balanced Mixers:
- Frequency:There are three frequencies that are of importance when selecting single balanced mixers:
- RF Frequency – This is the frequency of the original signal.
- LO Frequency – This is the frequency of the local oscillator (LO), it is used to up-convert or down-convert the RF frequency. the Intermedia Frequency (IF + LO) or to down-convert the RF frequency (RF - LO).
- Intermediate Frequency (IF) – This is the frequency obtained at the output, which is either the sum RF + LO (up-converting) and difference RF – LO (down-converting) of the input frequencies.
- Conversion Loss/Gain: This is the loss or gain in the amplitude of the signal after frequency conversion.
- Isolation: This is an important parameter, RF/LO isolation – is the measure of resistance of signal leakage from the local oscillator to the RF path. The higher the isolation, the better the mixer performance.
- LO Drive Power: This is the signal power of the Local Oscillator.
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