Determination of microwave-tube transfer functions

With the advent of sophisticated radar systems employing pulse-compression techniques, a clear understanding of the phase and amplitude characteristics of the circuit elements is paramount. Various techniques for phase/frequency measurements have been developed, and the search for more comprehensive methods continues. It is suggested that the impulse response of a circuit provides a novel way to describe the transfer function of nonlinear elements such as microwave amplifiers. With this approach, a complete set of data can be acquired in a very few minutes. Because of the spectral characteristic of the short pulse, information is obtained on a continuous-frequency basis. It is therefore the object of the paper to describe a method of obtaining phase and amplitude characteristics of microwave amplifiers by studying their response to a short input pulse.