ABSTRACT
This chapter presents applications of the nonlinear transmission line (NLTL) as two-port (input and output) systems for pulse compression, shockwave formation, and harmonic generation. They have a wide range of applications including high-frequency sampling circuits, frequency synthesizer, high-precision time-domain reflectometry, and modulation pumping in mode-locked lasers. For the large signal in pulse compression, the pulse typically experiences strong nonlinearity, so must substantial dispersion. Instead, a shockwave will form, which features a steep rising or falling edge, and can be useful in high-speed sampling circuits, example to strobe diode sampling bridges used in microwave network analyzers and oscilloscopes. The resulting sharp pulses and steep step functions contain high frequency harmonics beyond the bandwidth of the active transistors. It is thus natural to utilize this nonlinearity for harmonic generation, in which the NLTL takes a sinusoidal signal as input and produces harmonics at higher frequencies.
