Sensitivity Analysis of One-port Characterized Devices in Vector Network Analyzer Calibrations: Theory and Computational Analysis

About this Article
This article by Godfrey Kwan was presented at the NCSL International 2002 Symposium and published in the Proceedings. It won the Best Paper Award for Theoretical Metrology.

Abstract

In this paper we present the results of a study on the use of characterized devices in microwave vector network analyzer (VNA) calibrations and measurements. We give a brief review of the theory of one-port characterized device calibration. One-port characterized devices such as coaxial opens, shorts and loads are attractive because of their ease of handling and their ruggedness as compared to more fragile devices like sliding loads. The scattering parameter error box representation and widely used terminology of error terms in one-port VNA calibrations such as directivity, source match and tracking are adopted in this paper. Based on these parameters, we examine the quality of one class of one-port VNA calibrations achievable
through the use of characterized devices and the effects of different kinds of errors in device
characterization can have on VNA calibrations. Computational analysis has revealed interesting properties of this class of calibrations that can lead to significant improvements in the accuracy of VNA measurements.

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Sensitivity Analysis of 1-port Devices in VNA Calibrations