Setup for Characterization of the Non-Linear Electric Susceptibility in the Microwave Range Applied to a Glass Ceramic
A resonator method exciting eigenresonances of three coupled cylindrical dielectric resonators allows characterizing the non-linear response of low loss and high permittivity materials at frequencies of about 1 GHz. To reach the necessary sensitivity for dielectric non-linearities, the setup ensures that the measured intermodulation can be ascribed to the material under test while all other intermodulation sources are excluded. Electric field amplitudes of several V/mm are obtained at an input power of 100 W. The setup was used to characterize the third order non-linear susceptibility of a glass ceramic.
Description of intermodulation generation of nonlinear responses beyond the validity of the power series expansion
Weakly nonlinear responses are commonly described by a power series expansion. However, intermodulation distortion products that cannot be described by a power series have been observed in a variety of physical systems. As the power series description is only applicable within its radius of convergence, we choose an alternative approach based on Fourier coefficients to describe intermodulation levels beyond the convergence of the power series. The description over a wide power range allows us to make a decision about models and to determine previously inaccessible model parameters. We apply the approach to data obtained from the characterization of the nonlinear dielectric susceptibility of…
Reconfigurable dualband antenna module with integrated high voltage charge pump and digital analog converter
Integration of a reconfigurable antenna module for handheld applications employing a set of novel technologies is demonstrated. A low profile dualband hybrid dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) based on glass-ceramics and a tunable matching network (TMN) based on ferroelectric varactors with a maximum biasing of 90V form a reconfigurable antenna module. The control of the antenna module is performed by a 120V CMOS high voltage (HV) charge pump with an 8-bit digital analog (D/A) converter generated from a 3.7V battery. Adaptive impedance matching at the lower band of 1.9 GHz is carried out by the TMN when the dualband antenna is exposed to different operation scenarios. Meanwhile, the upper b…
High sensitivity characterization of the nonlinear electric susceptibility of a glass ceramic in the microwave range
The nonlinear electric susceptibility of a glass ceramic is characterized in the microwave range by measuring intermodulation of two high-power signals. To achieve the necessary sensitivity for dielectric nonlinearities, the setup ensures that the measured intermodulation can be ascribed to the material under test while all other intermodulation sources are suppressed. This is achieved by coupling three dielectric resonators in a cut-off waveguide. The third order nonlinearity of the glass ceramic is found to be χ3/er = (1.6 ± 0.8) × 10−15 m2/V2 at 950 MHz. The magnitude is comparable to the previously measured high-end sintered ceramics. The power of the intermodulation signal as a functio…