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Electronic Warfare and Radar Systems Engineering Handbook |
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MIXERS AND FREQUENCY DISCRIMINATORS Mixers are used to convert a signal from one frequency to another. This is done by combining the original RF signal with a local oscillator (LO) signal in a non-linear device such as a Schottky-barrier diode. The output spectrum includes:
The desired output frequency, commonly called the intermediate frequency (IF), can be either the lower (LO-RF) or upper (LO+RF) sideband. When a mixer is used as a down converter, the lower sideband is the sideband of interest. A microwave balanced mixer makes use of the 3 dB hybrid to divide and recombine the RF and LO inputs to two mixing diodes. The 3 dB hybrid can be either the 90° or 180° type. Each has certain advantages which will be covered later. The critical requirement is that the LO and RF signals be distributed uniformly (balanced) to each mixer diode. Figure 1 is a typical balanced mixer block diagram. The mixer diodes are reversed relative to each other; the desired frequency (IF) components of each diode are then in-phase while the DC outputs are positive and negative respectively. The two diode outputs are summed in a tee where the DC terms cancel and only the desired IF component exists at the IF port.
Other types of mixers exist, including the double-balanced mixer, and the Ortho-Quad® (quadrature fed dual) mixer. The relative advantages and disadvantages of each of the four types are summarized in Table 1.
NOTES: (1) Poor = 2.5:1 typical ; Good = 1.3:1 typical (2) Conversion loss: lowest: 5-7 dB typical; Low 7-9 dB typical (3) Poor: 10 dB typical ; Good: 20 dB typical ; Very Good: 25-30 dB typical ; Excellent: 35-40 dB typical (4) Poor: partial rejection of LO/RF even harmonics Fair: slightly better Good: can reject all LO even harmonics Very Good: can reject all LO and RF even harmonics Used in various circuits, mixers can act as modulators, phase detectors, and frequency discriminators. The phase discriminators can serve as a signal processing network for systems designed to monitor bearing, polarization, and frequency of AM or FM radiated signals.  A frequency discriminator
uses a phase discriminator and adds a power divider and delay line at the RF input as shown in Figure 2. The unknown RF signal "A" is divided
between a reference and delay path. The differential delay (T) creates a phase difference (θ) between the two signals which is a linear function
of frequency (f) and is given by θ = 2πfT.When the two output signals are fed to the horizontal and vertical input of an oscilloscope, the resultant display angle will be a direct function of frequency. Table of Contents for Electronics Warfare and Radar Engineering Handbook |
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RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The Internet was still largely an unknown entity at the time and not much was available in the form of WYSIWYG ... All trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other rights of ownership to images and text used on the RF Cafe website are hereby acknowledged. My Hobby Website: AirplanesAndRockets.com
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