John Larkin of Highland Technology has posted a lot of comments about doing this on the news:sci.electronics.design Usenet newsgroup. His company does a lot of high speed system designs for other high tech companies. You can access that group through Google Groups to contact him, or just to read his comments.
Michael A. Terrell
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-----Original Message-----
From: "Ed Breya via Groups.Io" <edbreya@...>
Sent: Jul 24, 2018 12:31 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [TekScopes] Homemade tunnel diodes
Jose said:
"Not many people seem to have made DIY NLTL, let alone samplers based on it."
This is probably true, because NLTLs usually have lots of stages, so can get very big and complicated before you get remarkable compression. For simplicity and effectiveness, a single SRD/varactor of the right type, in the right circuit environment, is pretty hard to beat for straight up impulse generation or frequency multiplication. A whole bunch of them cascaded can form a NLTL, with its edge-enhancement and wide BW. As always, it depends on the particulars of the application.
I don't think there's a need for a "modern" replacement for the SRD/varactor. It's a common RF part - not at all an obsolete technology. Nowadays there are alternatives for many applications, by using fast active devices capable of appropriate edge speeds.
Ed
Michael A. Terrell