Passive Intermodulation Due to Self-Heating in Printed Transmission Lines

Abstract

Abstract-This paper proposes a mechanism by which third-order intermodulation distortion, due to self-heating, is generated in transmission lines. This work shows how transmission lines made of several materials, whose properties are independent of the electric and magnetic fields, can generate important levels of intermodulation distortion. A circuit model supported by finite-element simulations is presented to account for the temperature generation and also for its impact on the nonlinear performance. Closed-form expressions are used to calculate the generated intermodulation products and are derived from the circuit model and compared with simulations. Finally, measurements and simulations of different transmission lines are presented, showing very good agreement.

Intermodulation in nonlinear SQUID metamaterials: Experiment and theory

“…The same issue appears in intrinsically nonlinear superconducting electronics. The IM between two input frequencies f 1 and f 2 leads to products at frequencies pf 1 ±qf 2 (p and q are integers), forming side bands and additional noise that could diminish the performance of superconducting devices [4,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. On the other hand, IM generation can be used as a diagnostic to determine various types of defects in superconductors [28][29][30][31], to study unconventional superconductors [28,29,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41], and to amplify microwave signals [2,27,42,43], even at the quantum limit in Josephson parametric amplifiers [1,3] and Josephson metamaterials [7].…”

The study on passive intermodulation research models

“…Factors related to the material are: the ferromagnetic materials [11], material corrosion (known as the Rust bolt effect early), nonlinearity of dielectric materials [12,13], nonlinearity of metal materials of high current density [14,15], etc. The nonlinearity from the connection between components including the mechanical effect of contact point, the electron tunneling effect [16,17,18], electrical-thermal coupling effect [19,20], the dirt on the surface of the part and so on.…”

Behaviour modelling of passive intermodulation in a complex non‐linear system

“…The model and characterisation of PIM has aroused the interest of researchers aiming to solve the PIM issues in RF devices. The generation mechanism of PIM often involves mechanics [3,4], heat [5][6][7], electromagnetic field [8][9][10], electrical contact [11][12][13][14][15] and so on.…”