Title :
Noise behavior of microwave amplifiers operating under nonlinear conditions
Author :
Escotte, Laurent ; Gonneau, Eric ; Chambon, Cedric ; Graffeuil, Jacques
Author_Institution :
Centre Nat. de la Recherche Scientifique, Toulouse, France
Abstract :
The noise behavior of microwave amplifiers operating under a large-signal condition has been studied in this paper. A Gaussian noise is added to a microwave signal and they are applied at the input of several amplifying devices. Experimental data show a decrease of the output noise spectral density when the power of the microwave signal at the input of the devices increases due to the compression of the amplifiers. A distortion component due to the interaction of the signal and its harmonics with the noise is also demonstrated from a simplified theoretical model. The statistical properties of the signal and the noise have also been investigated in order to verify the Gaussianity of the noise at the output of the nonlinear circuits. We have also observed that the majority of the measured devices show some variations of their additive noise versus the input power level.
Keywords :
Gaussian noise; circuit noise; microwave amplifiers; nonlinear network analysis; statistical analysis; Gaussian noise; additive noise; distortion component; large-signal condition; microwave amplifier; microwave signal; noise measurements; nonlinear circuits; nonlinear condition; nonlinear device; output noise spectral density; statistical property; Additive noise; Circuit noise; Gaussian noise; Harmonic distortion; Microwave amplifiers; Microwave devices; Noise measurement; Nonlinear circuits; Power amplifiers; Power measurement; Microwave amplifiers; noise measurements; nonlinear device; signal and noise; spectral analysis;
Journal_Title :
Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TMTT.2005.856082
