Abstract—This contribution analytically studies the influenceof IQ mismatch on the performance of multiple-antennaorthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systemsbased on the zero-IF architecture. First a system model forsuch a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) OFDM systemexperiencing both transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX)IQ imbalance is derived. This is used to obtain analyticalexpressions for the probability of error in symbol detectionfor MIMO OFDM systems in Rayleigh faded multipathchannels. The derived results can be used to find matchingspecifications for the TX- and RX-branches for differentmulticarrier MIMO systems. It is concluded that in fadingchannels RX IQ imbalance is on average more destructivethan TX IQ imbalance. Additionally, it is concluded thatthe addition of extra RX antennas is beneficial to reducethe dependence on RX IQ imbalance, but increases at thesame time the impact of TX IQ imbalance.

Index Terms—orthogonal frequency division multiplexing(OFDM), multiple-antenna systems, RF imperfections,IQ mismatch, fading channels, performance analysis

Cite: Tim C. W. Schenk, Erik R. Fledderus and Peter F. M. Smulders , "Performance Analysis of Zero-IF MIMO OFDM Transceivers with IQ Imbalance," Journal of Communications, vol. 2, no. 7, pp. 9-19, 2007.