IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 69, NO.

7, JULY 2020 3951

Electrical Intermodulation Tuner by Multiple Nonlinearities

Superposition Using Star Topology
Xiong Chen , Member, IEEE , Ming Yu , Fellow, IEEE , and David J. Pommerenke , Fellow, IEEE

Abstract— An intermodulation (IM) tuner with 2π rad phase and

40-dB amplitude range is demonstrated in this article. The solution is
based on the coherent nonlinearities combination among three nonlinear
sources connected with star topology. By combining the IM components
from these three nonlinear sources with 2π /3 rad phase offset for each
pair, the final output IM signal can be tuned in the whole 2π rad region.
Targeted to the special IM measurement for passive devices, the minimal
output IM amplitude can be adjusted to be lower than −112 dBm at
2 × 43 dBm. This article can be used as a standard source for the IM
phase and amplitude calibration while the tuner can also be used to
realize IM distortion product mitigation for the passive devices.
Fig. 1. IM phase composing based on a star-type combination.
Index Terms— Coherent amplitude combination, intermodula-
tion (IM) measurement, IM mitigation, IM tuner.
the changeable IM phase can be used to cancel the IM distortion.
For the sensitive IM distortion from passive devices, the studies in
I. I NTRODUCTION [7] and [8] prove that the IM distortion can be mitigated by reverse-

I NTERMODULATION (IM) is a thorny nonlinear distortion prod-

uct in most frequency division communication systems caused by
the nonlinearities in microwave devices. As there are many different
and complicated mechanisms in IM generating and propagating,
the theory modeling for this nonlinear effect is always strongly
dependent on the measurement. This fact makes the high-quality
IM measurement is of great significance [1], [2]. On implementing
high-quality IM measurement, an IM reference source is indispens-
able in realizing IM calibration or ensuring test confidence. Up until
now, several methods emerged to produce changeable IM amplitudes
for IM measurement [3], [4], and these solutions can provide tunable
IM amplitudes from 30 to 50 dB and are suitable for single-band
and multiband. However, as for IM phase reference, the published
solution is few.
In general RF tests or calibrations, the phase information can
be used to evaluate a signal property or localize signal source [5].
However, in most IM test cases for passive devices, the IM phase
is seldom noticed [1], much less the IM phase calibration for IM
tester, which is in sharp contrast with the recognized harmonic
phase calibration in nonlinear vector network analyzer (NVNA) [6].
As IM generating involves a complicated multiple carriers condi-
tion, the development of IM phase calibration is rather difficult to
be realized while no solution with perfect 2π tuning range was
demonstrated before. Despite the need to realize IM phase calibration,
Manuscript received March 17, 2020; accepted May 1, 2020. Date of
publication May 18, 2020; date of current version June 9, 2020. This work
was supported in part by the National Science Foundation for Young Scientists
of China under Grant 61901296, in part by the China Postdoctoral Science
Special Foundation under Grant 2019TQ0224, and in part by the China
Postdoctoral Science General Foundation under Grant 2019M661018. The
Associate Editor coordinating the review process was Dr. Shoaib Amin.
(Corresponding author: Xiong Chen.)
Xiong Chen is with the School of Microelectronics, Tianjin University,
Tianjin 300072, China (e-mail: shawn.cc@foxmail.com).
Ming Yu is with the Electronic Engineering Department, The Chinese
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (e-mail: ming.yu@ee.cuhk.edu.hk).
David J. Pommerenke is with the Institute of Electronics, Graz University
of Technology, 8010 Graz, Austria (e-mail: david.pommerenke@ieee.org).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this article are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIM.2020.2995234
0018-9456 © 2020 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
phase offset between different sources. However, in the proof of
this concept, the published phase changing in [7] and [8] is always
difficult to be actually realized as the changes in cable length and
connector torques are not easy in a fixed microwave network, while
their physical changes are inevitably to introduce uncontrollable IM
product, resulting in the engineered mitigation failure. The previous
work demonstrates a π/2 rad phase tuning [9], and for IM mitigation,
it is still not enough to realize perfect IM mitigation once the
requested phase tuning range exceeds π/2 rad. Therefore, the devel-
opment of an IM tuner with a full 2π rad phase tuning range is
meaningful.
This article demonstrates an IM tuner with a complete 2π rad phase
tuning ability. This article is structured as follows: in Section II,
the implementation of the IM tuner is presented. In Section III,
the performance verification with its application to IM mitigation
is provided. The conclusion is given in Section IV.
II. IM P HASE C OMPOSING U SING
S TAR T OPOLOGY
A. 2π Rad Phase Shifting Using Star-Type Combination
The proposed phase combination of star topology is shown
in Fig. 1. To realize 2π rad phase composing, three IM sources are
essential, where the phase offset between every two sources is fixed
with 2π/3 rad. Accordingly, the whole 2π rad phase plane is divided
into three regions. To generate the desired IM vector, only two fixed
IM vectors at its boundary are needed. The analysis of tunable IM
amplitude and phase is as follows.
Using one IM vector, P1 , as a reference, the combination of two
sources P1 and P2 , with the phase offset of 2π/3 rad, is used to
compose Pmix where these two vectors ae assumed as
P1 = K a sin(ωt)
P2 = K b sin(ωt + 2π/3) (1)
where K a and K b are the amplitudes of vectors. As shown in Fig. 1,
by using a triangular relation, the amplitude of combined Pmix is

K mix = K a2 + K b2 − 2K a K b cos(π/3) (2)

thorized licensed use limited to: AMRITA VISHWA VIDYAPEETHAM AMRITA SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING. Downloaded on December 27,2023 at 17:37:40 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions app
 3952 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 69, NO. 7, JULY 2020

Fig. 3. IM test frame and setup with its mitigation frame, the carrier powers
are two tones with equal power of 43 dBm.

Fig. 2. IM tuner frame with the tuning module prototype by star topology.

taking P1 as the phase reference origin, the relation of the phase

offset, θx , between P1 and Pmix is
Ka Kb K mix
= =
sin(2π/3 − θx ) sin(θx ) sin(π/3)
√ 
θx = arcsin 3 K b /2K mix . (3)

From the above deviation, it can be seen that to get a desired IM

phase tuning, only two IM sources at the boundary of the region are
needed.

B. Circuit Implementation
The IM phase and amplitude tuning are based on the combined
IM product from several separate coherent nonlinear sources, where
the coherence is inherently reached on using the same carriers to
stimulate these three IM sources, and three HSMS 2805 diodes with
normal LC bias networks are used. To reduce the bias error by the
RF power-induced inductive dc voltage on diode junction, this HSMS
2805 with a high breakdown voltage is chosen. As the dc coupling
onto the diode would not seriously change the bias outside once the
applied bias becomes strong, a stable IM tuning can be achieved.
As shown in Fig. 2, to obtain a desirable IM amplitude, the low IM
parallel line coupler (fabricated on Rogers 4730JXR with a thickness
of 1.542 mm and dielectric constant of 3) before the IM generation
module has to attenuate the carriers power to get a suitable IM tuning
range [4], [9]. The coupling strength is 18 dB in this demo. The
frequencies for two carriers are at 2620 MHz ( f1 ) and 2690 MHz
( f 2 ), while the IM signals ( f 3 ) are at 2550 MHz. As all the carriers
and IM share the same RF path, the IM phase delay is constructed
by two aspects, the phase delays in IM generation by carriers and
the IM propagation. Therefore, to achieve 2π/3 rad delay between
each two IM sources, the phase offset θC (taking f3 as a reference)
between each two sources must obey the following relation:
2 f1 − f 2 f3 2π
θG + θ P = θC + θC = ± N × 2π,
f3 f3 3
N = 1, 2, 3 . . . (4)
where θG is the phase delay in IM generation by the carrier, θ P is
the IM propagation phase delay; to make the phase delay line short
and considering the inherent phase delay in theb coupler, the final θC
used is ±2π/3 rad at f 3 = 2550 MHz.
The proposed IM generation module is shown in Fig. 2, and
the star topology is constructed by distributing three sources along
Fig. 4. IM tuning plane range. (a) Phase constellation distribution. (b) Tuning
error by phase offset error. (c) Measured and normalized IM phase refers to P1.
(d) Measured IM amplitude.
the carrier direction. The phase offset between every two sources
is 2π/3 + N × 2π rad. Three parallel line couplers cascaded
together and terminated with a 50- load, while all the coupling
ports connected with diodes. To better isolate these three diodes,
the coupling is enhanced to be 5 dB for better isolation.
III. E XPERIMENTAL D EMONSTRATION
The test frame is shown in Fig. 3. A spectrum analyzer and
vector network analyzer (VNA) are to detect IM amplitude and
phase, respectively. During operation, the IM amplitude is obtained
by spectrum analyzer first, then by changing the attenuation, before
the reference (S3, N9310A@ Kesight) provides equal reference
amplitude for VNA (at its outside trigger mode), to ensure the phase
test accuracy in VNA. All three signal sources are synchronized using
a uniform 10-MHz clock signal. In the IM mitigation demonstra-
tion, a manufactured loosed connection by two low IM connectors
(L29 type) is series before the IM tuner to simulate an IM distortion
source while its amplitude is adjusted by its torque. To provide
different phase offsets, the delta length, L, of the cable between
the lost connection and IM tuner is sweeping from 18 to 63 mm
with a step of 9 mm, this step equals to a phase step of 40◦ . As the
max delta length (63 mm) only causes a max insertion loss that is
less than 0.05 dB from 2 to 3 GHz, the insertion loss by the delta
cable lengths can be reasonably ignored.

thorized licensed use limited to: AMRITA VISHWA VIDYAPEETHAM AMRITA SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING. Downloaded on December 27,2023 at 17:37:40 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions app
 CHEN et al.: ELECTRICAL IM TUNER BY MULTIPLE NONLINEARITIES SUPERPOSITION USING STAR TOPOLOGY
Fig. 5. IM mitigation for loose connectors. The phase of the distortion source
is tuned by the discrete low IM cable (RG401 type) length connected before
tuner.
TABLE I
C OMPARISONS IN S IMILAR W ORKS
A. Tuner Verification
As shown in Fig. 4(a), the tunable phase plane can be divided into
three regions with 2π/3 rad for each pair. The specific phase region
is determined by the switching order of IM vector pairs; so based
on the reciprocity, one successful demonstration of IM tuning in 0
− 2π/3 rad region can prove the feasibility in the other two regions.
As shown in Fig. 4(a), the achievable tunable IM vectors are in a
hexagon boundary marked with red arrows. The max modulus of the
IM vector is nearly equal to the max strength of a single IM source.
Even though the IM level from a single source can still not be tuned to
zero, the phase value along the axe is still achievable as the combined
phase by the other two sources is reverse with this axe. The achievable
IM vectors that can cover the whole 2π rad plane are marked in the
black cycle. In the unit of voltage, the ratio of the max amplitude of
IM vector with that can sweep the 2π rad plane to the max amplitude
of realizable IM3 vector is sin(π/3). As shown in Fig. 4(b), it is
noted that the phase offset between each IM vector pair is determined
by the physical length of the induced phase delays. If the working
frequency changes, the fixed 2π/3 rad phase offset for each pair of
IM sources will change; thus, the amplitude and phase tuning curve
would not be a perfect cycle, similar to an ellipse indicated by the
dashed line shown in Fig. 4(b), so this tuner suits for working at a
narrow band. From the measured result shown in Fig. 4(c) and (d),
it can be observed that as the IM amplitude becomes weak, the
fluctuations of IM amplitude and phase become obvious. In this
article, the max amplitude of the tunable IM vector can approach
thorized licensed use limited to: AMRITA VISHWA VIDYAPEETHAM AMRITA SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING. Downloaded on December 27,2023 at 17:37:40 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions app
3953
to −83.5 dBm at a single bias of 70 V, while its min level is
about −126 dBm.
B. IM Mitigation by Amplitude and Phase Sweep
In this demo, a lost connection works as the IM distortion source.
In the operation, the IM level of this tuner is regulated to its weakest
level and the connectors are fastened well with its max torque first.
This condition works as the low IM statue to calibrate the residual
level of the whole IM test loop, and the interesting connection
junction is loosened to obtain a distortion IM level. Referring to
this amplitude, the IM tuner is regulated to be the equal level, then
the IM phase of IM tuner sweeps from 0◦ to 360◦ . The combined
IM level in the loop is as shown in Fig. 5. From the test results,
it is clear that the IM distortion product from the lost connection by
two low IM connectors can always be mitigated to the residual level
in the 2π rad range. Based on the test results, a comparison of the
similarly published works is shown in Table I. This article shows a
notable improvement in both IM phase tuning and IM mitigation.
IV. C ONCLUSION
This article presents a novel design of IM tuner to generate 2π
rad phase tuning using multiple nonlinear sources superposition with
star topology. In this solution, three IM sources with 2π/3 rad phase
offset from each are cascaded by a coupling network. The experiment
proves the IM tuning range reaches 40 dB in amplitude while 2π
rad in phase. This IM tuner can serve both as an IM phase and
amplitude reference for IM measurement or work as a flexible IM
product mitigation method.
R EFERENCES
[1] Passive RF and Microwave Devices, Intermodulation Level Measurement,
Standard IEC 62037, May 2012.
[2] Passive Intermodulation Measurements Techniques, Kaelus RF Filtering
Test Meas. Products Inc. Denver, CO, USA, 2000.
[3] X. Chen and Y. He, “Novel programmable passive intermodulation
generator using nonlinear rotating disk,” IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon.
Lett., vol. 27, no. 10, pp. 945–947, Oct. 2017.
[4] X. Chen, Y. He, and W. Cui, “Broadband dual-port intermodulation
generator for passive intermodulation measurements,” IEEE Microw.
Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 518–520, May 2017.
[5] M. Zhang et al., “Localization of passive intermodulation based on the
concept of k-space multicarrier signal,” IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory
Techn., vol. 65, no. 12, pp. 4997–5008, Dec. 2017.
[6] Y. Zhang and M. Lin, “A new NVNA phase reference for polyharmonic
intermodulation measurements,” IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., vol. 62,
no. 6, pp. 1467–1472, Jun. 2013.
[7] J. Henrie, A. Christianson, and W. J. Chappell, “Cancellation of passive
intermodulation distortion in microwave networks,” in Proc. 38th Eur.
Microw. Conf., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Oct. 2008.
[8] J. Henrie, A. Christianson, and W. J. Chappell, “Engineered passive non-
linearities for broadband passive intermodulation distortion mitigation,”
IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 19, no. 10, pp. 614–616,
Oct. 2009.
[9] X. Chen, S. Yang, D. J. Pommerenke, Y. He, M. Yu, and J. Fan,
“Compact intermodulation modulator for phase reference in passive
intermodulation measurements,” IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., vol. 68,
no. 12, pp. 4612–4614, Dec. 2019.