A simplified method for measuring complex S-Parameters dedicated to Synthetic Instrumentation

The constantly emerging market for high and medium volume test applications in the area of high frequency devices calls for cost efficient test solutions. One way to achieve this is using modular reconfigurable measurement equipment, thus enabling the reuse of hardware. This tendency brought up some synthetic instruments capable of sophisticated high frequency measurements up to 6 GHz. One feature those COTS-(Commercial Off The Shelf) systems are lacking, is the ability to measure complex scattering parameters. This article introduces an architecture of a synthetic VNA (Vector Network Analyzer) that enables a cost efficient way of measuring S-Parameters. The theoretical basics, a simulation based accuracy estimation as well as first measurement results are presented as proof of concept.