Distortion Analysis of Analog Electronic Circuits Using Modulated Signals

Abstract

Reducing non-linear distortion in modern analog electronic circuits is key to obtaining correct performance. Lower supply voltages, higher bandwidth and the need for higher energy efficiency are making the design of circuits with low distortion very challenging, so designers need good tools to analyse their circuit's performance. Classical distortion analyses predict the distortion contributions for weakly non-linear circuits excited by single-tone and two-tone
signals. In their application, the analog circuits are used with modulated signals for which the distortion obtained with one and two-tone test is not representative at all. In this thesis, the distortion analysis of electronic circuits
is performed using modulated signals which resemble the signals the circuit will encounter in its application. The distortion analysis is performed by combining the concepts of the Best Linear Approximation with a noise analysis. In this way, a distortion analysis is obtained that predicts the distortion contributions under
modulated excitation and that can handle both weakly and strongly non-linear electronic circuits. Additionally to the non-linear distortion analysis, a local stability analysis of electronic circuits is considered in this PhD thesis.

Date of Award	16 Dec 2016
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Electricity
Supervisor	Gerd Vandersteen (Promotor)