A Repetitive Sampling Receiver for Pulsed Time Domain Load-Pull

摘要

The capability of a Nonlinear Vector Network Analyzer (NVNA) repetitive sampling receiver, which is designed to perform pulsed RF S-parameter and load-pull measurements, is presented. Due to its unique sampler-based architecture, unlike a mixer based VNA, the dynamic range of the NVNA is independent of the duty cycle. This results in a good dynamic range even for tiny duty cycles. This NVNA is presented in combination with an open-loop active harmonic load-pull setup, thus enabling fast waveform engineering in pulsed mode.Nowadays it is a big challenge for engineers dealing with high power RF/microwave transistors to perform an accurate and complete characterization of their devices and to build and validate a transistor model. The modeling process usually starts by extracting a simple linear model from S-parameter measurements.