Testing a high-power amplifier is no easy task, requiring that the engineer measure the component’s linear and nonlinear behavior using a high power test system. With no such test system available today, this poses quite a challenge. Perhaps even more challenging is dealing with the component’s nonlinear behavior. Typically, engineers make a set of constrained linear measurements at high power levels and then just assume the amplifier is linear, all the while hoping it isn’t so nonlinear that their assumption will create a problem. In an ideal world, the engineer would measure the amplifier and then use the results in a simulator to determine the amplifier's performance when connected to other devices. But, if the amplifier’s nonlinear behavior is measured using a linear assumption, then the result of the simulation will be wrong. While engineers may live with this inaccuracy, it invariably results in extensive and costly empirical-based iterations of the design, adding substantial time and cost to the design and verification process. Testing today’s high-power devices demands an alternate solution—one that quickly and accurately characterizes the device’s nonlinear behavior and that is capable of dealing with its high power level.