Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, a non-linear energy detector that obtains baseband information from a mixed signal that corresponds to an information component of a received radio frequency (RF) signal, wherein the mixed signal comprises a local oscillator signal combined, without multiplication, with the received RF signal, wherein the received RF signal comprises a carrier wave component operating at a carrier frequency within a millimeter wave spectrum, wherein the non-linear energy detector is associated with a non-linear current-voltage (I-V) characteristic curve, and wherein the baseband information is obtained by applying the mixed signal to the non-linear I-V characteristic curve. Other embodiments are disclosed.