Millimeter wave generation on nonlinear transmission lines

In recent years, nonlinear transmission lines (nltls) have successfully been used to generate ultrashort electrical pulses and transients from a sinusoidal input signal. In the frequency domain, this pulse compression results from the generation of a large number of harmonics with suitable phase relationships. In this paper, special examples of nltls are studied which are capable to produce millimeter wave signals at selected frequencies, here by second and third harmonic generation and nonlinear active wave propagation effects. Bi-modal transmission lines are particular discussed which provide the necessary dispersion for high conversion efficiencies.