Distortion generating circuit

摘要

A distortion generating circuit of the present invention comprises a linear attenuator which has an input impedance substantially coincident with an impedance of a transmission path of input signal and an output impedance substantially coincident with an impedance of a transmission path of output signal; and at least one diode which is connected in an alternating current manner in parallel with the linear attenuator with respect to the input signal into the linear attenuator and which generates nonlinear distortion for a component in the input signal input thereinto; which outputs an AC sum of an output from the linear attenuator and an output from the diode. By this arrangement, desired distortion can be well given in a simple circuit arrangement while suppressing generation of unnecessary intermodulation distortion. An optical transmitter, an optical receiver or an amplifier can be constructed using the distortion generating circuit of the present invention, obtaining a signal with reduced distortion.