New approach to measure nonlinear component behaviour

According to Agilent, when used in conjunction with Maury microwave tuners and software, it enables the industry's first capability to accurately measure and simulate nonlinear component behaviour at all load impedances. The result, says the measurement specialist, is the highest level of insight into nonlinear DUT behaviour. This could make the NVNA capability especially useful for rf technology research and engineers involved in the design of high performance active devices. The addition of the arbitrary load impedance x-parameter option allows engineers to see how all signals react with their device, as well as extend x-parameter design 'cascade-ability' to arbitrarily large load mismatches. By removing the constraint for the output match to be either small or moderate, it is now possible to measure and simulate linear and nonlinear behaviour over a load gamma range covering the full Smith chart. Agilent reports that Inter stage matching of components with varying impedances is now fully predictable in the simulator.