Precise Location of Passive Intermodulation in Long Cables by Fractional Frequency Based Multi-Range Rulers

doi:10.12142/ZTECOM.202501013

Abstract

Abstract:

A novel method is developed by utilizing the fractional frequency based multi-range rulers to precisely position the passive intermodulation (PIM) sources within radio frequency (RF) cables. The proposed method employs a set of fractional frequencies to create multiple measuring rulers with different metric ranges to determine the values of the tens, ones, tenths, and hundredths digits of the distance. Among these rulers, the one with the lowest frequency determines the maximum metric range, while the one with the highest frequency decides the highest achievable accuracy of the position system. For all rulers, the metric accuracy is uniquely determined by the phase accuracy of the detected PIM signals. With the all-phase Fourier transform method, the phases of the PIM signals at all fractional frequencies maintain almost the same accuracy, approximately 1°(about 1/360 wavelength in the positioning accuracy) at the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 10 dB. Numerical simulations verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, improving the positioning accuracy of the cable PIM up to a millimeter level with the highest fractional frequency operating at 200 MHz.

Key words: passive intermodulation, location, multi-range

DONG Anhua, LIANG Haodong, ZHU Shaohao, ZHANG Qi, ZHAO Deshuang. Precise Location of Passive Intermodulation in Long Cables by Fractional Frequency Based Multi-Range Rulers[J]. ZTE Communications, 2025, 23(1): 101-106.

Figures/Tables 8

References 12

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Distance/m	Error#1/mm	Error#2/mm	Error#3/mm	Error#4/mm	Error#5/mm	Average Error/mm
20	0.692	0.795	0.751	0.780	0.721	0.747 8
18	0.467	0.557	0.287	0.287	0.467	0.413 0
16	0.336	0.336	0.236	0.336	0.236	0.296 0
14	0.741	0.719	0.732	0.727	0.732	0.730 2
12	0.300	0.519	0.339	0.191	0.300	0.329 8
10	0.332	0.575	0.413	0.494	0.332	0.429 2
7	0.433	0.357	0.509	0.509	0.585	0.478 6
5	0.280	0.280	0.508	0.166	0.166	0.280 0
3	0.689	0.737	0.737	0.717	0.746	0.735 2
1	0.504	0.262	0.357	0.452	0.357	0.386 4
0.7	0.259	0.259	0.450	0.641	0.641	0.450 0
0.5	0.658	0.710	0.710	0.658	0.658	0.678 8
0.3	0.780	0.693	0.564	0.607	0.607	0.650 5
0.1	0.174	0.399	0.286	0.174	0.286	0.263 8

Distance/m	Error#1/mm	Error#2/mm	Error#3/mm	Error#4/mm	Error#5/mm	Average Error/mm
20	0.692	0.795	0.751	0.780	0.721	0.747 8
18	0.467	0.557	0.287	0.287	0.467	0.413 0
16	0.336	0.336	0.236	0.336	0.236	0.296 0
14	0.741	0.719	0.732	0.727	0.732	0.730 2
12	0.300	0.519	0.339	0.191	0.300	0.329 8
10	0.332	0.575	0.413	0.494	0.332	0.429 2
7	0.433	0.357	0.509	0.509	0.585	0.478 6
5	0.280	0.280	0.508	0.166	0.166	0.280 0
3	0.689	0.737	0.737	0.717	0.746	0.735 2
1	0.504	0.262	0.357	0.452	0.357	0.386 4
0.7	0.259	0.259	0.450	0.641	0.641	0.450 0
0.5	0.658	0.710	0.710	0.658	0.658	0.678 8
0.3	0.780	0.693	0.564	0.607	0.607	0.650 5
0.1	0.174	0.399	0.286	0.174	0.286	0.263 8

PIM Locating Technology	Scenario	Distance/m	Working Frequency/MHz	Error/mm
The near-field scanning^{[1, 12]}	Microstrip line	0.21	935–960	10
Acoustic vibration^{[1, 9]}	Antenna	–	1 850–1 990	10
K-space muti-carrier signals^[10]	Cables	2.437	1 125–1 175	37.5
Emission source microsopy^[8]	PCB	0.7	1 932–1 985	5
Our work	Cables	20	1 805–1 880	0.519

PIM Locating Technology	Scenario	Distance/m	Working Frequency/MHz	Error/mm
The near-field scanning^{[1, 12]}	Microstrip line	0.21	935–960	10
Acoustic vibration^{[1, 9]}	Antenna	–	1 850–1 990	10
K-space muti-carrier signals^[10]	Cables	2.437	1 125–1 175	37.5
Emission source microsopy^[8]	PCB	0.7	1 932–1 985	5
Our work	Cables	20	1 805–1 880	0.519

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