Patent ID: 6906585

Claim:
An apparatus for substantially reducing nonlinear distortion, the apparatus comprising: an input coupling means having an input and first and second outputs, the input coupling means capable of splitting an input signal into first and second coupled signals that are in-phase with respect to each other; a first nonlinear device having an input in communication with the first output of the input coupling means and an output; a second nonlinear device having an input in communication with the second output of the input coupling means and an output; and a subtractor having a first input in communication with the output of the first nonlinear device, a second input in communication with the output of the second nonlinear device and an output, wherein the subtractor is capable of subtracting an output signal of the second nonlinear device from an output signal of the first nonlinear device to generate a final output signal wherein the first nonlinear device defines a gain as G 1 dB, the second nonlinear device defines a gain as G 2 dB, the first nonlinear device defines a third order output intercept point as OIP 3 1 dBm and the second nonlinear device defines a third order output intercept point as OIP 3 2 dBm, and K=10 log 10 (p 2 /p 1 ), where p 1 is the input signal power level of the first nonlinear device and p 2 is the input signal power level of the second nonlinear device, such that the first and second nonlinear devices and the input coupling means are provided such that most nearly 2(OIP 3 1 −OIP 3 2 )=3(G 1 −G 2 −K), where G 1 is not equal G 2 +K and such that the first and second nonlinear devices have substantially equal time delay and phase to substantially reduce third order nonlinearity.