Carrier-power dependence of passive intermodulation products in printed lines

In this paper, the carrier-power dependence of the PIM products generated in microstrip and coplanar waveguide transmission lines is investigated experimentally. Both simultaneous and independent tuning of the power levels of two fundamental carriers is used. Saturating behaviour of the PIM products at higher carrier power and local minima of PIM products in the two-carrier power domain are observed. The effect of the combined conductor and substrate nonlinearities on the power rates of PIM products is discussed. Application of the PIM power measurements to the characterization of nonlinearity in printed circuits is considered.