GENERAL NOISE-ANALYSIS OF NONLINEAR MICROWAVE CIRCUITS BY THE PIECEWISE HARMONIC-BALANCE TECHNIQUE

This paper presents a self-consistent set of algorithms for the numeri cal computation of noise effects in forced and autonomous nonlinear mi crowave circuits. The analysis relies upon the piecewise harmonic-bala nce method, and thus retains all the peculiar advantages of this techn ique, including general-purposeness in the widest sense. The noise sim ulation capabilities include any kind of forced or autonomous nonlinea r circuit operated in a time-periodic large-signal steady state, as we ll as microwave mixers of arbitrary topology. The limitations of the t raditional frequency-conversion approach to noise analysis are overcom e. The analysis takes into account the thermal noise generated in the passive subnetwork, the noise contributions of linear and nonlinear ac tive devices, and the noise injected by sinusoidal driving sources of known statistical properties. The nonlinear noise models of two repres entative families of microwave devices (FET's/HEMT's and Schottky-barr ier diodes) are discussed in detail, and several applications are illu strated.