Nonlinear Microwave Circuits Part 1 Vector Nonlinear Microwave Measurements and Behavioral Modeling Video

In Part I of this Webinar, we will start with a review of vector large-signal microwave measurements for the acquisition of the phases and amplitudes of the multi-harmonic incident and reflected waves at the ports of a nonlinear device. The various types of NVNA architecture available, the procedure used to calibrate them and the calibration traceability will be presented. Next the behavioral models used for the representation of the measured multi-tone multi-harmonic data will be reviewed. This will include the general multi-harmonic Volterra functions for CW periodic nonlinear RF excitations, the X-parameter/S-function approximations for mildly nonlinear RF excitations and their extension for modulated multi-harmonic signals. Circuit-based nonlinear microwave models can also be directly extracted from large-signal measurements for a targeted range of operation. Examples of SOS-MOSFET and GaN models extracted and verified using a few real-time active load pull (RTALP) measurements will be presented. The efficient phase sweeping of the RTALP drastically reduces the number of large-signal measurements needed for the model development and verification while maintaining the same intrinsic voltage coverage as in conventional passive or active load–pull systems. The bias dependence of the charges and device IV characteristics can then be simultaneously extracted from these large-signal RF measurements using artificial neural networks (ANN).