Definition
At low power levels, the fundamental output power rises in a one-to-one ratio (in terms of dB) of the input power, while the second-order output power rises in a two-to-one ratio. If the input power is high enough for the device to reach saturation, the output power flattens out in both the first- and second-order cases.
The second order intercept point is the output power point at which the extrapolated first- and second-order lines intersect on a plot, since the actual power levels will flatten off due to saturation at much lower power level typically. In other words, the response is assumed to be perfect all the way to infinity. There are actually values for both the input and output SOI (known as the ISOI & OSOI) of a device or system, being related by the gain of the device or system. The OSOI in dB is simply the ISOI in dB plus the gain of the device or system.
Read more about this topic: Second-order Intercept Point
Famous quotes containing the word definition:
“No man, not even a doctor, ever gives any other definition of what a nurse should be than this—”devoted and obedient.” This definition would do just as well for a porter. It might even do for a horse. It would not do for a policeman.”
—Florence Nightingale (1820–1910)
“Perhaps the best definition of progress would be the continuing efforts of men and women to narrow the gap between the convenience of the powers that be and the unwritten charter.”
—Nadine Gordimer (b. 1923)
“Beauty, like all other qualities presented to human experience, is relative; and the definition of it becomes unmeaning and useless in proportion to its abstractness. To define beauty not in the most abstract, but in the most concrete terms possible, not to find a universal formula for it, but the formula which expresses most adequately this or that special manifestation of it, is the aim of the true student of aesthetics.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)