Computer-aided analysis of near-carrier noise in RF - Microwave frequency converters

The paper presents for the first time a rigorous nonlinear analysis of near -carrier noise in a frequency converter consisting of a noisy nonlinear cir cuit driven by noisy sinusoidal source(s). The problem being tackled is the evaluation of the phase and amplitude noise of the up- or down converted s ignal starting from the knowledge of the circuit topology, of noisy models for the nonlinear devices, and of the statistical properties of the noisy f orcing source(s). Two mixer models of different complexities are treated in depth, i.e., the case of an ideally buffered local oscillator (LO), and th e case of a real LO fully described by its circuit topology. In both cases a correct evaluation of the near-carrier noise is shown to require a pertur bative analysis of the noiseless quasiperiodic steady state generated by th e intermodulation of the local oscillation with the RF signal. (C) 1999 Joh n Wiley & Sons, Inc.