High Power Intermodulation Measurements up to 30 W of High Temperature Superconducting Filters

Abstract

We have demonstrated a high power intermodulation measurement set-up capable of delivering 30 W in each of two fundamental tones. For closely spaced frequencies (< 35 MHz), the dynamic range of the measurement is limited by the nonlinear performance of the mixer in the front end of the HP71210C spectrum analyzer. A tunable TE011 mode copper cavity was fabricated in which one of the endwalls could be adjusted shifting its resonant frequency between 5.7 and 6.6 GHz. Since the Q-value of this cavity is high, > 104, and its bandwidth is small, < 1 MHz, it can be used to attenuate the two fundamental tones relative to one of the harmonic tones, which greatly enhances the dynamic range of the measurement. This set-up can be used to measure the two-tone intermodulation distortion of any passive microwave device, e.g. a HTS filter, a connector, a cable, etc., over a frequency range of 5.9 to 6.4 GHz and a power range of 0.1 to 30 W. The third order intercept (TOI) of a prototype HTS filter measured at powers up to 30 W was +81.3 dBm.