prof. Ing. Václav Papež, CSc.

Nonlinearity of nominally linear electronic components is one of the values that allow predicting time instability of the parameters of manufactured components and their expected lifetime. By evaluating nonlinearity, it is possible to obtain the same information about the tested components as from the long-term lifetime tests, which could damage them and might last for thousands of hours. The measurement of a very small nonlinearity of nominally linear electronic components is commonly consists in evaluating a nonlinear distortion caused by an observed nonlinearity in the harmonic signal. Nonlinearity is evaluated according to the ratio of the voltages of the third harmonic and first harmonic at the terminals of the measured component or by evaluating the intermodulation distortion. The intermodulating method lies in the evaluation of the level of the resulting intermodulation product at the combination frequency, when two harmonic signals are supplied onto the component.