Steady-State Analysis of Forced Microwave Oscillators

The paper introduces a harmonic-balance approach to the steady-state analysis of nonlinear microwave oscillators forced by a number of sinusoidal signals. This important class of subsystems includes modulators of any kind, self-oscillating mixers, as well as integrated mixer/LO subassemblies. The numerical problem is solved by a mixed-mode Newton iteration including the unknown frequency of oscillation among the unknowns. A systematic solution to the starting-point problem is discussed in detail. The full nonlinear simulation of a varactor frequency modulator is presented as an example of application.