BCICTS Primer Course

Design of RF/mm-wave Frequency Converters

Abstract:
Frequency conversion is at the heart of radio design, as it enables frequency translation from low-frequency and baseband signals to high-frequency and vice versa. In the age of mmWave and THz, where it is difficult to realize fundamental mode oscillators, frequency multiplication enables a lower frequency oscillator to operate be translated to higher frequency and hence enables mixing operations at much higher frequencies. This primer course will provide theoretical background for both mixer and multiplier operation. It will then examine common mixer and multiplier topologies and will provide insights into differences between operation in different technologies (e.g., Si vs. III-V, FET vs. HBT, etc.).

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Jeff Walling received his BS from University of South Florida and his MS and PhD from University of Washington, all in Electrical Engineering. He has held industrial positions at Motorola, Intel, Qualcomm and Skyworks. His research has primarily focused on circuits for wireless communications and sensing. From 2012 to 2019, he was an assistant, then associate professor at University of Utah. Then he was head of RF transceivers at Tyndall National Institute in Cork, Ireland. Since 2021, he is an associate professor at Virginia Tech. He has served as an associate editor for TCAS-II, TCAS-I and JSSC, and on the technical program committees of the IEEE RFIC, ISSCC and NEWCAS conferences. In 2025, he was the North American Regional Subcommittee Chair for ISSCC. He is a senior member of the IEEE and has more than 100 papers in peer reviewed conferences and journals.