A technique for real-time measurement of Nth-orderderivativesdNV/dIN

A technique for the measurement of device derivatives d ^NV/dI^N of arbitrary order N described. Measurement is accomplished by injecting a test current composed of the sum of N square waves into the rest device, and then multiplying the corresponding voltage change by the product of those same square waves, followed by low-pass filtering. The algorithm is implemented in real time using a mixture of analog and digital circuitry, and its application to semiconductor laser control in high-speed optical communications is described