A homodyne multi-port network analyzer for S parameter measurements of microwave N-port circuits/systems

In this paper a homodyne multi-port network analyzer using a single six-port junction as a wave correlator is proposed for the characterization of N-port microwave devices, circuits and systems. The six-port wave correlator is operated as a two-channel wave receiver. The use of an additional test set, which comprises two switching matrices and N directional couplers, allows the measurements of complete S parameter matrices of N-port devices. By comparison to existing network analyzers, the proposed system is homodyne in the sense that it does not require any frequency down conversion to determine the phase information and uses only one six-port junction to obtain complex S parameter measurements from only scalar measurements