Microwave down converter

Claim 1

A balanced down converter for millimetric waves delivering a signal at the beat frequency between an input signal and a signal from a local oscillator, comprising: a parallelepipedic cavity having first and second opened opposite faces and a third opened face; two parallelepipedic housings each of which has an opened face in alignment with one of said two opened opposite faces of said cavity; a dielectric wafer serving as substrate for a stripline and passing through said cavity and said two housings, said wafer carrying a conducting strip used for serially connecting two diodes whose non-common electrodes are respectively connected to fourth and fifth opposite faces of said cavity, said strip defining first and second microstrip line sections extending respectively in each of said two housings, said first microstrip line section propagating the signal from the local oscillator towards said cavity, and said second microstrip line section transmitting the beat frequency signal towards an output; an approximately flat wall parallel to said wafer and formed by a sixth face of said cavity opposite to said third opened face thereof, and by the corresponding faces of said two housings; a flange positioned on said third opened face of said cavity; and a guide section connected to said flange for propagating said input signal.