Experimental Characterization of the 3rd Order Nonlinearities in Thin Film Parallel-Plate Ferroelectric Varactors

The 3rd order nonlinearities in parallel-plate ferroelectric varactors based on thin Ba
_0.25
Sr
_0.75
TiO
₃
epitaxial films are characterized in wide temperature range. Both, the generated 3rd order harmonic and 3rd order intermodulation products are measured experimentally. The 3rd harmonic IP3 at room temperature is measured to be 35 dBm and is favorable as compared to semiconductor competitors. The good agreement between harmonic balance simulation and measured data indicate that the measured low frequency C-V is adequate for accurate design of nonlinear components.