On the use of Cann's model for nonlinear behavioral-level simulation

Behavioral level techniques are presently very popular tools for the nonlinear simulation of mobile communication circuits and systems. The use of Cann's (1980) model for modeling nonlinear circuits and systems is discussed in this paper. It is shown that this model has a nonphysical behavior for the small-signal regime in most cases (it cannot be expanded in a Taylor series) and gives incorrect predictions for nonlinear products. When nonlinearities are to be taken into account in the simulation (intermodulation, adjacent channel power, etc.), the use of Cann's model should be avoided or at least it should be used with extreme care.