Supercomputer-Aided Generalized Mixer Analysis and Optimization

The high computational power of modern supercomputers can be exploited by suitable program architectures to solve CAD problems that are practically beyond the reach of conventional scalar systems. In this way a direct harmonic-balance treatment of nonlinear circuits under multiple-frequency excitation becomes possible with attractive cost-to-performance ratios. The application of such an approach to microwave mixers is presented in the paper, and for the first time a direct mixer optimization is demonstrated.