Qing HAN Keizo INAGAKI Kyouichi IIGUSA Robert SCHLUB Takashi OHIRA Masami AKAIKE
Harmonic distortions of a recently developed lightweight film-type ESPAR (Electronically Steerable Passive Array Radiator) antenna are investigated experimentally. These distortions arise from the nonlinearity of the varactor diodes that are directly integrated with the parasitic radiator elements to control the antenna's radiation pattern. A reactive-near-field measurement technique that employs low-interference probes in an ultra-small anechoic box is used to reduce experimental time and cost. An anti-series varactor pair is introduced and compared with the conventional single varactor. Consequently, an ESPAR antenna equipped with the anti-series varactor pair exhibits remarkable suppression of nonlinear distortion. In particular, the second- and the third-order harmonic is reduced by approximately 20 dB and 12 dB from the level of a single varactor type ESPAR antenna, respectively.
Phase noise generation in varactor-tuned oscillators is analyzed by an asymptotic perturbation technique. It is found out that 1/f noise and AM noise are converted into phase noise by first- and higher-order nonlinearities of the varactor. The deduced formula can be utilized in CAD for circuit evaluation/optimization of varactor-tuned osicillators.