Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Volume 2010 (2010), Article ID 415315, 5 pages
doi:10.1155/2010/415315
Research Article

X-Parameter Measurement of Pulse-Compression Nonlinear Transmission Lines

Ming Li, Rony E. Amaya, Robert G. Harrison, and N. Garry Tarr

Department of Electronics, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5B6, Canada

Received 19 July 2009; Accepted 30 September 2009

Academic Editor: Muhammad Taher Abuelma'atti

Copyright © 2010 Ming Li et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

X-parameters provide a powerful and eminently practical solution for interoperable measurement, modeling, and simulation of nonlinear microwave and RF components. Using X-parameters to do large-signal measurements has been brought into the spotlight. This paper introduces a new X-parameter application: measuring large-signal behaviour of pulse-compression nonlinear transmission lines (NLTLs). A specially configured Nonlinear Vector Network Analyzer (NVNA) was used to measure the X-parameters in the frequency-domain, and then the measured data was transformed into a nonlinear time-domain waveform. The results show both rise-time and fall-time reduction (double-edge compression) as expected and indicate that this newly developed X-parameter method implemented with an NVNA could correctly predict NLTLs' pulse-compression performance.