Designing an RFIC CMOS upconversion mixerdesign software Designing an RFIC CMOS upconversion mixer Software to help the engineer design and implement a CMOS mixer on an RFIC platform ― issues, tradeoffs and solutions. By Stephen Long esigning a mixer to work within a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) is challenging. Differing performance specifications must be prioritized based on the application. Some specifications are for receive applications with a wide range of input signal levels where maximum linearity under large signal conditions is often more critical than the noise figure. On the other hand, for transmit applications where the signal levels can be controlled, the design strategy shifts to tradeoffs between noise and intermodulation distortion (IMD) behavior to achieve the largest useable dynamic range. In this……