Method and apparatus are provided for high linearity and low noise
communication signal mixing. The apparatus includes a high linearity low
noise mixer having an input stage coupled to a switch stage by a
series-coupled blocking capacitance and input resistance. The input stage
includes a buffer with negative feedback, and the switch stage includes a
transistor based switch network connected to an amplifier that has
feedback resistance and shunting capacitance. The method includes AC
coupling an RF signal, increasing a gain of the RF signal, reducing
third-order distortion by negatively feeding-back the RF signal, blocking
IM2 generated from said gain increasing step, increasing a second-order
input intercept point (IIP2) by attenuating the RF signal across a
resistance, and applying a local oscillator input to the RF signal.