Third-order intermodulation distortion characteristics of millimeter-wave self-heterodyne transmission techniques

Abstract

We present the third-order intermodulation distortion characteristics (IMD3) of millimeter-wave self- heterodyne transmission techniques for the applications of multichannel analog signal transmission. Since local oscillator (LO) carriers are simultaneously injected to the receiver together with RF signals, the power balance between LO and RF is a key parameter to determine nonlinear characteristics of self- heterodyne down-conversion mixer although the equal power balancing is theoretically optimum condition for the highest carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR). We observe higher LO power ratio gives us the better suppression of IMD3 in frequency down- conversion process and clarify its dependence on total RF received power.