RF Mixer applications

RF Mixer applications
RF mixers are used in all areas of RF design, and development. They are used in circuits from radio receivers and transmitters to radar systems, and in fact anywhere that radio frequency signals are used.

RF mixers are used in a number of different ways:

• Frequency translation: The most obvious application for RF mixers
  is for frequency translation. This technique is used in many areas
  and in particular in receivers and transmitters to move the frequency
  of a signal from one band to another. Using the fact that the two
  input frequencies generate sum and difference frequencies, it is
  possible to change the signal input to another frequency by taking
  either the sum or the difference signal. One of the first major
  applications of this was in the superheterodyne radio receiver.
• Phase comparison: Using a mixer it is possible to detect the phase
  difference between two signals. This RF mixer application can be used
  in many areas, one of which is within phase locked loops.

Radio frequency (RF) is the oscillation rate of an alternating electric current or voltage or of a magnetic, electric or electromagnetic field or mechanical system in the frequency range from around twenty thousand times per second (20 kHz) to around three hundred billion times per second (300 GHz). This is roughly between the upper limit of audio frequencies and the lower limit of infrared frequencies;[1][2] these are the frequencies at which energy from an oscillating current can radiate off a conductor into space as radio waves. Different sources specify different upper and lower bounds for the frequency range.