The applet compares the performance of the various mixer types and indicates the levels of the important RF/LO intermodulation frequencies.
Three typical mixer configurations are modeled, including the single diode, single-balanced mixer, and the double-balanced mixer.
All configurations assume a 7-dB conversion loss for the mixer component.
The plots allow the effects of signal amplitude and LO drive level to be understood. In particular, the applet allows optimum selection of LO and IF frequencies for a given RF band conversion.
LO, RF breakthrough and harmonics are painted in green and tagged in black.
Wanted lower (LSB) and upper (USB) sidebands are painted in blue and tagged blue and red, respectively.
Intermodulation components are tagged n, m, where n represents the LO harmonic number and m represents the RF harmonic number. Blue tags are difference harmonics and red tags are sum harmonics. LO and RF harmonics up to the seventh are modeled.
The intermodulation component colours identify the difference |n – m|, where black = 0; magenta = 1; red = 2; orange = 3; yellow = 4; pink =>4.
Moving the mouse in the power out-IF frequency space displays the mouse pointer co-ordinates allowing coarse estimation of the frequency and amplitudes of the mixer components. Save sends the calculated component data values within the set frequency range and above -200 dBm to the data console.
There is a Test field in the Mixer Type drop-down menu for viewing user own data. User data is entered via the data console (Control+V) and activating the Load Test Data button. A loadable example file is test file (Ctrl-A followed by Ctrl-C to capture; click Back arrow to return to the applet). This can either be edited once opened in the Data Console or used as a data formatting guide to the load file specification.

User Notes:
In-band intermodulations are best identified by tuning the signal frequency across the selected RF band.
A warning occurs for out-of-band signals.
Note the rate of intermodulation component amplitude variation when varying the LO and signal amplitudes.
Adjusting the display frequency range to just encompass the wanted IF band, clarifies display of in-band intermodulations.
Double conversion schemes can be assessed by noting significant components in the first IF, then using Signal RF and Signal Power to simulate these amplitudes in the second IF.