ON THE HARMONIC RESPONSE OF SOME NONLINEAR SYSTEMS
D. Makow, R. A. Hurd · Canadian Journal of Physics · 1963
The harmonic components and the describing function for several types of nonlinear characteristics are calculated. The nonlinear effects take the form of threshold, curvature, saturation, negative slope, and infinite slope in various combinations. Both antisymmetrical and asymmetrical characteristics are considered. Two kinds of sinusoidal excitation are dealt with: (a) operating point at the origin, signal amplitude unrestricted; (b) operating point not at the origin, amplitude smaller than the bias.The calculations are based on approximating the actual characteristic by the product of a linear and a squared exponential function. As examples of the method, approximations to the tunnel diode characteristic and to a system with threshold and saturation were made using this function.