Contributions to Adjacent Channel Power in Microwave and Wireless Systems by PIN Diodes

Spectral regrowth is a major design issue confronting the wireless transmitter and system designer. Considerable work has been performed by a number of investigators into the level of spectral regrowth produced by power amplifiers but no work to date has studied how the spectral regrowth is influenced by PIN diodes that in the same RF path. This paper is a first look at the contributions of PIN diodes following amplifiers to generation of adjacent channel power. A methodology based on a Volterra analysis shows how nonlinear signal contributions by PIN diodes influence spectral regrowth and how the operating conditions of the diodes may be changed to control this contribution.