AD8346
CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION
OVERVIEW
V-TO-I CONVERTER
The AD8346 can be divided into the following sections: local
oscillator (LO) interface, mixer, voltage-to-current (V-to-I)
converter, differential-to-single-ended (D-to-S) converter, and
bias. A detailed block diagram of the part is shown in Figure 25.
Each baseband input pin is connected to an op amp driving an
emitter follower. Feedback at the emitter maintains a current
proportional to the input voltage through the transistor. This
current is fed to the two mixers in differential form.
The LO interface generates two LO signals, with 90° of phase
difference between them, to drive two mixers in quadrature.
Baseband voltage signals are converted into current form in
the V-to-I converters, feeding into two mixers. The output of
the mixers are combined to feed the D-to-S converter which
provides the 50 Ω output interface. Bias currents to each
section are controlled by the Enable (ENBL) signal. Detailed
descriptions of each section follows.
MIXERS
There are two double-balanced mixers, one for the in-phase
channel (I-channel) and one for the quadrature channel
(Q channel). Each mixer uses the gilbert cell design with four
cross-connected transistors. The bases of the transistors are
driven by the LO signal of the corresponding channel. The
output currents from the two mixers are summed together in
two resistors in series with two coupled on-chip inductors. The
signal developed across the R-L loads is sent to the D-to-S stage.
LO INTERFACE
The differential LO inputs allow the user to drive the LO differ-
entially in order to achieve maximum performance. The LO can
be driven single-endedly but the LO feedthrough performance
is degraded, especially towards the higher end of the frequency
range. The LO interface consists of interleaved stages of
polyphase network phase splitters and buffer amplifiers. The
phase-splitter contains resistors and capacitors connected in a
circular manner to split the LO signal into I and Q paths in
precise quadrature with each other. The signal on each path
goes through a buffer amplifier to make up for the loss and high
frequency roll-off. The two signals then go through another
polyphase network to enhance the quadrature accuracy. The
broad operating frequency range of 0.8 GHz to 2.5 GHz is
achieved by staggering the RC time constants in each stage of
the phase-splitters. The outputs of the second phase-splitter are
fed into the driver amplifiers for the mixers’ LO inputs.
IBBP
DIFFERENTIAL-TO-SINGLE-ENDED CONVERTER
The differential-to-single-ended converter consists of two
emitter followers driving a totem-pole output stage. Output
impedance is established by the emitter resistors in the output
transistors. The output of this stage is connected to the output
(VOUT) pin.
BIAS
A band gap reference circuit based on the Δ-VBE principle
generates the proportional-to-absolute-temperature (PTAT)
currents used by the different sections as references. The band
gap voltage is also used to generate a temperature-stable current
in the V-to-I converters to produce a temperature-independent
slew rate. When the band gap reference is disabled by pulling
down the ENBL pin, all other sections are shut off accordingly.
IBBN
V-TO-I
V-TO-I
AD8346
MIXER
LOIN
PHASE
SPLITTER
2
PHASE
SPLITTER
1
VOUT
D-TO-S
LOIP
MIXER
ENBL
BIAS CELL
V-TO-I
V-TO-I
QBBP
QBBN
Figure 25. Detailed Block Diagram
Rev. A | Page 10 of 20
ROCHESTER [ Rochester Electronics ]
