Harmonic Distortion Reference Structure for Contact Induced Harmonics

Today's mobile device designs make extensive use of electrical interconnects, ESD protection and magnetic materials, all of which can be potential sources of interference due to harmonic distortion from strong TX signals due to non-linearities. Harmonic generation, particularly from contacts, is highly variable. Therefore, a stable and controllable harmonic reference source is required for nonlinear interference analysis in such devices. This paper proposes a harmonic reference source based on the Schottky diode. It produces consistent and adjustable distortion. Simulations agree very well with measurements up to the low gigahertz range. This allows validation and comparison in difficult environments such as contact harmonics in mobile phones.