SYNCHRONIZATION ANALYSIS OF AUTONOMOUS MICROWAVE CIRCUITS USING NEW GLOBAL-STABILITY ANALYSIS TOOLS

A new spectral-balance technique for the global-stability analysis of autonomous circuits is presented in this paper. This technique relies on the introduction of measuring probes into the circuit and it allows a simple determination of both bifurcation diagrams and bifurcation l oci as a function of any suitable parameter. Through the proposed algo rithms, this kind of analysis can be easily added to any existing soft ware, since it is performed externally to the harmonic-balance (HB) ca lculation. Due to its local nature, it also allow's an easy selection of the bifurcation parameters, which spreads the simulation possibilit ies. Both periodic and quasi-periodic regime simulations are possible, and bifurcations are detected in both operating modes. The synchroniz ation phenomenon in injected oscillators and frequency dividers is als o analyzed in detail for an accurate prediction of the operating bands , The simulation techniques are illustrated by means of their applicat ion to a cubic nonlinearity oscillator. They are then used for the sta bility analysis of a monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) di vider by two operating in the millimetric range, A very good agreement has been obtained with the experimental results.