Residual errors determination for vector network analyzer at a low resolution in the time domain

Abstract

A method is introduced for determination of a vector network analyzer's calibration residual errors for measurement of the reflection coefficient. The method utilizes unscented Kalman filtering and spline interpolation time domain techniques. All three residual errors are calculated by processing the measured reflection coefficient of a single verification device, such as an air line terminated with a short or open network. The proposed method shows particular advantages when the use of a long verification line is impractical (e.g. at the wafer-level), or for measurements at low frequency ranges or similar cases when the resolution of conventional time domain methods is low.Experimental studies were conducted for two frequency ranges and in coaxial and on-wafer measurement environment. The proposed algorithm is a good candidate for a wide range of practical applications especially for measurement uncertainty estimation of cost-effective vector network analyzers.Index Terms -Vector network analyzer (VNA), verification, residual error box, unscented Kalman filters (UKF).

A simple adaptive method of antenna frequency parameters measurements with local reflections

“…In this case, the developed algorithm can also use and the estimates can be obtained for this band [2,9].…”

“…Estimates of the unknown variables can be made from measurements. On the k-th step, dependence of observations z = [z (1) z (2) ... z (k) ...] T on the state vector x coordinates can be written as:…”

“…2 shows the set of samples for B (reference values B 1 , B 2 , B 3 , B 4 ) and all A (reference values A 1 , A 2 , A 3 , A 4 ) signals in the distance-frequency plane. A similar model is also used for VNA verification [2][3][4][5][6], and navigation signal generator calibration [7]. The components of z can be separated using Fourier analysis.…”