360° Varactor Linear Phase Modulator

Abstract

Theory is presented which 1) derives the circuit impedance requirements to match the nonlinearity of the varactor reactance-versus-voltage curve to the tangent /spl theta/ curve to obtain 180/spl deg/ linear phase modulation from one diode; 2) gives the value and position of a resistor to make insertion loss invariant with phase; and 3) derives the circuit requirements for combining two 180/spl deg/ diode phase moduIators in an admittance adding network to obtain 360/spl deg/ phase modulation. Experiments are disclosed rising series tuning at 1 GHz providing 360/spl deg/ phase modulation within /spl plusmn/ 3.0 percent of linearity, and using shunt tuning at 5 GHz providing 360/spl deg/ phase modulation within /spl plusmn/ 3.3 percent of linearity. A discussion is given of the application of the modulators to the serrodyne function.