Ahybrid mixer is like a piece of jewelry. That insight was the enabling technology for Ferenc Marki, previously a goldsmith and jeweler, to design microwave mixers and ultimately start Marki Microwave. The first production mixer he designed at Watkins Johnson (WJ), his first job after college, covered 4 to 1 2 GHz, used baluns assembled from miniature coax and HP beam lead diodes. The mixer, the M12, was hard to produce, so he asked HP to develop lower capacitance diodes to get more repeatable performance. At the time, the market for mixers was principally below 1 GHz, and Ferenc's boss was skeptical anyone would want a mixer with an IF to 4 GHz. Ironically, the M1 2 was chosen by WJ's own systems division for use on a defense program.
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