A novel nonlinear distortion characterisation standard for RF and microwave communication systems

Theoretical results obtained with a simplified third order memoryless nonlinear system have shown that multitone test characteristics can be directly related to the more usual two-tone test figures. These theoretical developments have also proved that the noise power ratio (NPR) gives an optimistic measure of co-channel distortion. A corrected co-channel power ratio (CCPR) characterisation standard and its associated laboratory measurement set-up have therefore been proposed to circumvent the failings of the NPR. The usefulness of this approach is illustrated by some measurements of a practical C-band amplifier circuit