Intermodulation intercept point

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The intermodulation intercept point in electronics is a measure of an electrical device's linearity. When driven by two sinusoidal waveforms, it is the theoretical power level at which the power of the desired tone and the nth-order (where n is odd) intermodulation product intersect.

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Intercept may refer to:

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In telecommunications, a third-order intercept point (IP3 or TOI) is a specific figure of merit associated with the more general third-order intermodulation distortion (IMD3), which is a measure for weakly nonlinear systems and devices, for example receivers, linear amplifiers and mixers. It is based on the idea that the device nonlinearity can be modeled using a low-order polynomial, derived by means of Taylor series expansion. The third-order intercept point relates nonlinear products caused by the third-order nonlinear term to the linearly amplified signal, in contrast to the second-order intercept point that uses second-order terms.

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The Second-order intercept point, also known as the SOI, IP2, or IIP2, is a measure of linearity that quantifies the second-order distortion generated by nonlinear systems and devices. Examples of frequently used devices that are concerned with this measure are amplifiers and mixers. It is related to the third-order intercept point, which is generally used for quantifying degree of nonlinearity of a nonlinear system or it can also be used to estimate the nonlinear products present at the output of such a system.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Two-tone testing</span>

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