PARAMETRIC AMPLIFIERS AND UPCONVERTERS,
Abstract
There is a discussion of the fundamental principles of parametric amplification, and a quantitive treatment which is valid in the limit of very high Q diodes. Design formulas from the literature are given and discussed for the more practical case of finite Q diodes. An engineering discussion of noise in amplifying systems is presented, because the most important characteristic of parametric amplifiers and converters is low noise. Since the parametric amplifier is built up from a twoterminal negative resistance, it is qualitatively different from the conventional amplifier (such as the vacuum tube triode and traveling wave tube). For this reason some basic material on the properties of negative resistance amplifiers is included. Several typical parametric amplifiers are presented and discussed. Information is included which may be of assistance to a systems designer who is weighing the merits of the parametric amplifier against some other amplifier in a system design. Several examples of system design are given. Finally, some recent experimental data are discussed which suggest that in the future the parametric amplifier will completely prevail over the maser. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 05, 1964
- Accession Number
- AD0600405
Entities
People
- Alan C. Macpherson
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory