Design and Evaluation of Nonlinear Verification Device for Nonlinear Vector Network Analyzers

An Inter-Laboratory Comparison of NVNA Measurements

“…• DUT 1: A Marki Microwave amplifier [5] with a frequency range of 5 MHz to 26.5 GHz and a nominal gain of 12 dB with 3.5 mm coaxial adaptors on the input and output • DUT 2: The same model of amplifier as for DUT 1 but with 3.5 mm coaxial 6 dB attenuators (matching pads) on the input and output • DUT 3: A non-linear verification device (NLVD) [4] The stimulus conditions that were applied to the DUTs are listed in Tables I and II. The measurands (quantities to be measured) for DUTs 1 and 2 were: the amplitude and phase of the incident and scattered waves (a and b) at the input and output for five harmonics (including the fundamental), the DC bias voltage and current at the drain and gate, the gain and the power added efficiency (PAE).…”

“…The amplifiers were measured under both linear and nonlinear operating conditions depending on the incident RF power level. The nonlinear verification device (NLVD) [4] was designed to be insensitive to the impedance match conditions provided by the NVNA. It consists of three blocks in cascade: an input block comprising a band pass filter to pass the 2 GHz fundamental frequency, a nonlinear block consisting of diodes arranged in a limiting configuration to generate harmonics and an output block to isolate the nonlinear block from the NVNA load port.…”