Chaos analysis in a millimeter-wave self-oscillating mixer

Chaotic responses are often experimentally encountered in self-oscillating mixers (SOM's), based on IMPATT diodes. In this letter, a chaotic SOM is an alyzed, determining the bifurcation sequence that leads from standard opera tion to chaotic behavior. This analysis has been carried out as a function of the most influential parameters, encountering several torus doublings, w hich precede the chaotic response. A technique has been developed in order to predict the initial torus doubling from harmonic balance (HB) simulation s. This permits the avoidance of the SOM anomalous behavior at the design s tage. Excellent agreement has been found between frequency and time domain simulations, both in good correspondence with experimental results.