General-Purpose Computer Program for the Volterra-Series Analysis of Nonlinear Microwave Circuits

摘要

Volterra-series, or nonlinear transfer-function analysis, is an efficient and highly effective method for analyzing weakly nonlinear circuits under small-signal excitation. It has been used to analyze nonlinear effects in a wide variety of circuits, and is particularly useful for calculating intermodulation levels in MESFET amplifiers. Volterra-series techniques have also been used to analyze time-varying circuits such as mixers and parametric upconverters. However, the large amount of algebraic effort necessary to generate analytical forms of the Volterra kernels of even simple circuits has prevented the wide application of Volterra-series analysis. This analytical complexity has forced many experimenters to employ simplifying assumptions, especially in the topology of the equivalent circuits of solid-state devices; these approximations limit the accuracy of the analysis. This report describes a general-purpose computer program that performs Volterra-series analysis of a weakly nonlinear circuit. The program is intended primarily for use in the design of microwave circuits; its catalog intended primarily for use in the design of microwave circuits; its catalog of circuit elements includes the distributed elements necessary for such work. (RH)