MEASUREMENT UNCERTAINTY IN VECTOR NETWORK ANALYZER

W. Li, J. Vandewege

Abstract

Precision design work and tight manufacturing tolerances demand highly accurate measurements. A Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) is one of the most important aids for linear RF analog designs. It can give accurate information about the passive network performance in both the frequency domain and the time domain. Designers heavily rely on these measurement results to locate the design problems and to evaluate the network performance. But the measurement errors always exist. In any high frequency measurement, there are measurement errors associated with the system that contribute uncertainty to the results. Therefore, measurement accuracy of a VNA is an important concern to the instrument designers and suppliers. This paper gives the overview of the uncertainty and errors associated with VNA measurement. Based on the low cost Vector Network Analyzer developed by INTEC, University of Gent, Belgium, the estimations of the uncertainty and errors in the reflection and transmission measurements are discussed. The measurement results are present to illustrate the improvement of the measurement accuracy after taking into account these measurement issues in the design procedure.

Keywords

Vector Network Analyzer, measurement

Download

IMEKO-WC-2000-UNC-P510.pdf

DOI

-

Back to the proceedings