Radio frequency and microwave linear and nonlinear characterization

The wireless communication market has witnessed tremendous growth in recent years. To the consumer, this growth manifests itself via the proliferation of mobile telephones, tablets, gaming consoles, and soon, the Internet of Things. The design of these wireless communication systems requires in-depth understanding of their microwave functionality, starting from the theoretical underpinnings of their inner workings to their practical system-level deployment. The design of microwave wireless systems traverses three different stages, oftentimes dubbed the device, circuit, and system levels. In spite of the vast archival literature dealing with each of these design levels, thus far no book has detailed the links and interactions among them. Not surprisingly, microwave engineers often acquire deep expertise in one level, but lack understanding of other levels, especially their interactions, which complicates the collaboration and project handover between design teams, and stifles innovation. As an example, engineers working on device modeling oftentimes experience difficulties understanding the different operating modes of transmitters based on dynamic power supply power amplifiers (DPSPA), despite the fact that DPS-PA operating modes are inherently and simply related to transistor operation. The goal of this book is to elucidate links between the different levels in microwave wireless system design by describing and unraveling their interactions. The book’s multiple expert authors offer distinct and complementary viewpoints of the subject material. Together, their two forewords and eight chapters provide comprehensive coverage of the vast topic area. While individual contributions focus primarily on one of the three different design levels, altogether they also touch on interactions between levels, and address the presently siloed knowledge of the subject field. For example, the reader will learn that design links between the device and the circuit levels are not so different when dealing with amplifiers, mixers, or oscillators, and that limitations arising from transistor linear and nonlinear parasitic elements are largely the same, even though they impact different quantities (noise, power added efficiency, conversion gain, resonance conditions).