On Peculiarities of S-parameter Measurements

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-1-2007

Keywords

Characteristic impedance, Microwave measurements, Propagation constant, S-parameters

Abstract

Extracting quantities, such as the propagation factor or the characteristic impedance of a transmission line based on measured S-parameters, can be more involved than expected. Experience teaches that even if the S-parameter measurements look smooth and are of good quality, the derived quantities can contain large spikes that tend to grow when connection imperfections are present. In this paper, the presence of the peaks is shown in practical measurements, a possible explanation for their presence is provided, and a sensitive indicator (the image parameters) for the imperfections is proposed. © 2007 IEEE.

Journal Title

IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement

Volume

56

Issue

5

First Page

1967

Last Page

1972

DOI

10.1109/TIM.2007.895581

First Department

Engineering

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