What's the advantage of passive mixer?

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Rainleo

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How passive mixer has been used in a lot of places. I knew it has better linearity comparing with the traditional Gilbert cell. But besides that, are there any other advantages? How is the noise comparing with active mixers?
 

Well, one is that you aren't on the hook for supply current,
because all the energy comes from the RF and LO inputs.
A Gilbert (or a passive with on-chip drivers) consumes
supply power.

The commutating mixers (FET quad) want a pretty stiff
gate drive and you may find them not integration-friendly
because the driver you'd need, will throw a lot of glitch
energy back into the rails.

My company makes passive mixers which are great as piece
parts. But when we have to integrate a lot of radio, at low
power, here comes the Gilbert.
 

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