The nonlinearity of an element can be altered while retaining the original operating point and first-order terms by appropriately combining two instances of the nonlinear element with complementary scaling factors for incremental voltages above the operating points. Per-element distortion contributions in a circuit can then be determined by altering the nonlinear terms by known factors and simulating the output distortion in each case. This technique can be used in a standard circuit simulator

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... ith the appropriate nonlinear device models but requires no knowledge of the device model details on the part of the circuit designer. The technique is demonstrated by applying it to a common source amplifier with a nonlinear load and a two stage fully differential opamp.