A novel noise figure and gain test set for microwave devices

Author

Di Paola, Alessandra ; Sannino, Mario

Author_Institution

Dipt. di Ingegneria Elettrica, Palermo Univ., Italy

Volume

48

Issue

5

fYear

1999

fDate

10/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

921

Lastpage

926

Abstract

A new instrument for the measurement of noise and gain of microwave devices is presented. It differs from the commercial ones in the accomplishment of the gain measurement and is also useful for measuring mismatched devices such as transistors, The instrument is driven via HP-IB by a PC and a user-friendly virtual panel is designed to perform all the required operations. Also included is the possibility of removing the second-stage noise contribution and correcting various sources of error (source ENR variations, temperature variations, etc.). The test set provides a very good accuracy for both matched and mismatched devices, usually limited by source ENR accuracy and step attenuator repeatability. The performances of the instrument are compared with those offered by commercial instrumentation

Keywords

automatic test equipment; electric noise measurement; gain measurement; microwave measurement; microwave transistors; semiconductor device noise; error sources; gain test set; microwave devices; mismatched devices; noise figure test set; second-stage noise contribution; source ENR variations; step attenuator repeatability; temperature variations; user-friendly virtual panel; Error correction; Gain measurement; Instruments; Microwave devices; Microwave measurements; Microwave transistors; Noise figure; Noise measurement; Performance evaluation; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Instrumentation and Measurement, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9456

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/19.799648

Filename

799648