Self biasing diode microwave frequency multiplier

A microwave frequency multiplier employs a first self-biasing unidirectional conductive means (112) such as self-biasing diode means and a second self-biasing unidirectional conductive means (114) such as self-biasing diode means coupled in anti-parallel relationship across a signal input, each of the self-biasing diode means including a diode and a biasing elements. The first self-biasing diode means and second self-biasing diode means cause a bias to occur at internal nodes which increase with increased input power for a broad range of input power levels. The presence of internal biasing results in waveform clipping at higher signal levels. Relative to prior art, the conversion loss will remain optimum up to high input power over an entire high-power input range. The self-biasing diode means in one embodiment comprises a diode coupled in series with a parallel combination of a resistive element (R1) and a capacitive element (C1), the resistive element for developing a voltage drop across the capacitive element suitable to bias the diode, and the capacitive element being of sufficient capacitance to maintain a voltage bias level across the resistive element. The time constant determined by the values of the resistive and capacitive elements should be on the same order of magnitude as the period of the input signal. Additional external bias may be employed in alternative embodiments. In addition, further diodes (D3, D4) may be added to the self-biasing diode means to provide further breakdown protection.