Power Handling Capability of Ferroelectric Film Varactors and Tunable Microwave Devices

Power handling capability of tunable microwave devices employing ferroelectric Ba x Sr 1-x TiO 3 film-based varactors: was experimentally measured and analyzed. A microstrip resonator, excited by either harmonic or two-tone microwave signals of elevated power, was selected as an example of tunable test fixture. The nonlinear distortion of the resonant curve under microwave pulsed power and generation of the third-order intermodulation distortion products in microwave resonator, using ferroelectric varactors were measured. Formulas to estimate power handling capability connected with the microwave electric field dielectric nonlinearity and the ferroelectric film overheating are derived for the tunable microwave devices based on ferroelectric films