Two-tone intermodulation analysis of communication satellite transponders
Amplitudes of the in-band intermodulation products that arise when two equal-amplitude sinusoids are transmitted through a satellite transponder can be found from a linear transformation when the transponder characteristic is represented by a polynomial. Conversely, the nonlinearity that produces the intermodulation levels measured in a two-tone test can be found from the inverse transformation. As an application, the bandpass nonlinearity is deduced that gives rise to two-tone IM amplitudes that were measured during orbital tests of a satellite transponder, and compared with the measured bandpass characteristic.