Dynamic linearization of diodes for high speed and peak power detection applications

In this paper we show that the characteristics of diode based peak power detectors are dependent on the type of input excitation signal. Linearization of peak power detectors using continuous wave (CW) characterized data results in inaccurate linearized peak powers when compared with peak power data obtained from actual measurements. By comparing the diode power detector behavior under different types of excitations, it is proved that CW characterized data can´t be used to linearize peak power detectors when excited with real (modulated) signals having high peak-to-average-power (PAPR) value. For accurate linearization, two new approaches have been proposed; one using calibration factor and another using dynamic calibration. The proposed approaches improved the accuracy of the diode peak power detector used for measurement validation.