A New Approach to the Analysis and Design of Microwave Feedback Oscillators

The direct use of the harmonic balance algorithm in oscillator design encounters several difficulties due to the oscillator being an autonomous system that determines its own frequency, power and harmonic content. The approach presented here analyzes an open loop version. of the oscillator network and follows the "natural" build up of oscillations at the desired frequency to reach the steady state. The method is fast, applying a harmonic balance analysis to a single port, and there is no need for accurate initial conditions guess and no serious convergence or stability problems in the solution process. Measurements performed on an oscillator designed by this method show good agreement between predicted and experimental results.