Electricity: measuring and testing – Impedance – admittance or other quantities representative of... – Calibration
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-17
2001-04-17
Metjahic, Safet (Department: 2858)
Electricity: measuring and testing
Impedance, admittance or other quantities representative of...
Calibration
C324S754090, C333S033000, C333S245000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06218845
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to slot transmission line RF measurements, and more particularly to a slot transmission line calibration standard kit for use with a network analyzer and a technique for using the kit.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the field of microwave component design, a network analyzer is typically used to quantify the RF performance of a device. These performance measurements require a calibrated reference plane at the interface between the device under test and the test system to minimize errors introduced into the measurement by the test system. The reference plane is defined at the connection of the port(s) of the measurement system to the port(s) of the device under test. Furthermore, the ports of the test system include a transition (or adapter) to the transmission line utilized by the device under test.
An aspect of this invention is a precision calibration standard kit of components that will mate to a particular type of transmission media, slot transmission line, also known as “slotline” or “slotted line”. Previous techniques for slotline measurements include calibration with coaxial or probe-coupled transition standards, which do not establish an accurate reference plane and provide no correction to translational errors. In addition, these previous techniques permit radiation losses in the slot adapters and probe-coupled transition, and interact with the slot transmission line, thereby producing errors that are not eliminated by the calibration standards.
The calibration standards and calibration techniques typically utilized during microwave measurements limit the network analyzer measurement accuracy.
It would therefore represent an advance in the art to provide a technique for establishing an accurate calibration for slotline measurements.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An aspect of this invention is an RF (Radio Frequency), precision calibration standard kit for “slotline” or slot transmission line. The calibration standard kit embodied in the present invention establishes an accurate, repeatable reference plane at the slotline transmission interface, and does not suffer from unaccountable radiative losses and positional errors that plague coaxial or probe-coupled transition calibration standards. These capabilities imply that this calibration standard kit produces accurate reflection, transmission, and time-domain-gated, bidirectional, two-port network analyzer measurements. The kit can be employed to perform Through, reflection and Line measurements, to calibrate the network analyzer for measurements at reference calibration plane surfaces on the adapters.
In an exemplary form, the precision calibration standard kit for slot transmission line (“slotline”) includes first and second coaxial to slot transmission line adapters, each adapter defining an adapter slot transmission line and having a slot connection port connected to an connection end of the slot transmission line and a coaxial connection coupled to the adapter slot transmission line. The kit further includes an offset component defining a section of slot transmission line, and a shorting plate. The first and second adapters, the offset component and the shorting plate are each adapted for connection to each other in a plurality of calibration configurations, including configurations for conducting Through, Reflection and Line measurements.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4535307 (1985-08-01), Tsukii
patent: 4967173 (1990-10-01), Watson
patent: 5854559 (1998-12-01), Miranda et al.
patent: 5910754 (1999-06-01), Simpson et al.
Product Note 8510-5A, “Network Analysis-Specifyingcalibration standards for the HP 8510 network analyzer,” Jan. 31, 1988, Hewlett-PackardCompany.
Product Note 8510-8, “Network Analysis-Applyingthe HP-8510B TRL calibration for non-coaxial measurements,” Jan. 31, 1992, Hewlett-PackardCompany.
Bradshaw Steve E.
Bunch Tracy L.
Cox Gerald A.
McWhirter Brian T.
Panaretos Steve K.
Alkov Leonard A.
Lenzen, Jr. Glenn H.
Metjahic Safet
Nguyen Vincent Q.
Raytheon Company
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