Phenomenological Modeling of Passive Intermodulation (PIM) due to Electron Tunneling at Metallic Contacts

Author

Russer, J. ; Ramachandran, Aditi ; Cangellaris, Andreas ; Russer, Peter

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Illinois Univ. at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL

fYear

2006

fDate

11-16 June 2006

Firstpage

1129

Lastpage

1132

Abstract

A methodology is proposed for the phenomenological modeling of passive intermodulation (PIM) generation due to electron tunneling in metallic contacts in the signal transmission path of an RF/microwave system. The proposed model aims at enhancing the understanding of this type of PIM source through the investigation of the impact of surface roughness and skin effect on the levels and frequency dependence of PIM interference. Furthermore, the proposed methodology is such that it provides for the development of PIM source models for metallic contacts that are compatible with general-purpose electromagnetic and network analysis-oriented, non-linear circuit simulators

Keywords

electrical contacts; electromagnetic wave interference; intermodulation; skin effect; surface roughness; tunnelling; PIM interference; PIM source models; RF/microwave system; electron tunneling; metallic contacts; nonlinear circuit simulators; passive intermodulation; signal transmission path; skin effect; surface roughness; Electrons; Microwave generation; Microwave theory and techniques; RF signals; Radio frequency; Rough surfaces; Signal generators; Skin effect; Surface roughness; Tunneling; Passive intermodulation; electron tunneling; non-linear circuit simulation; transient electromagnetic field solvers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest, 2006. IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

San Francisco, CA

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-9541-7

Electronic_ISBN

0149-645X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2006.249389

Filename

4015119