AA-1

CALIBRATING A DUAL SIX-PORT OR FOUR-PORT FOR

MEASURING TWO-PORTS WITH ANY CONNECTORS

Cletus A. Hoer and Glenn F. Engen

National Bureau of Standards

Boulder, Colorado 80303

ABSTRACT

A techniaue is described for calibratin~ a dual TRL Calibration, Dual 6-port or 4-port
six-port & four-port ANA so that the sca-ttering
parameters of two-port devices having any (a)
combination of connectors can be measured. The
technique is a generalization of the
WI= bJb4
!tthru-reflect-linet! (TRL) calibration technique in
which
of
the
precision
“thru” is
transmission
replaced
line.
with a second length
~TAfbH~~T: ‘IJ
INTRODUCTION
ar, +b ar2 +P
wl. — —.
cr, + 1 ‘z=~rz+]
The TRL technique [1] for calibrating a dual
six-port or four-port reflectometer has been
modified
two-port
so that
devices
the
having
scattering
any
parameters
combination
of
of
--H- THfW

connectors can be measured.

--++’- ++-- REFLECT
The “Through,” “Reflect,” and “Line” measurements
made in the TRL calibration are shown in Figure la.
The complex sidearm ratios w, and w, are measured LINIE
for the three measurement conditions shown, The
measurement planes are connected together, then Gives a, b, C, a, ~, ~, and y~ of line
one or more highly reflecting terminations are
connected to one six-port and then to the other
six-port. Finally a length of precision LRL
transmission line is connected between the two
six-ports. For a dual six-port, WI and W2 are
each obtained from four power measurements made on
the four sidearms of each six-port [11. For a
dual four-port, WI and W2 are obtained from a
detector which measures the complex sidearm ratio
directly.
Lme 2
The TRL calibration yields the parameters a,b,c of
four-port A, and IX,E3,6 of four-port B. Also gives
obtained from the TRL solution are the reflection b=bt
coefficients of all the terminations used in the c/a = ct/af
~treflecti’ measurements , and Y!. of the precision
transmission line used in the “line?’ measurement,
8=8, (b)
where Y is the propagation constant of the line, P/a= Pt/a~
and 9. is its physical length. As shown in figure
a=ateX4
la, the TRL technique can be applied only to
reflectometers having identical sexless connectors a = atexzl
at the test ports. If the requirement for making ?’212-7111 =(Yl)t
a “throughtt connection is replaced by a
measurement with a short length of line as shown t indicates values obtained from
in Figure lb, then the calibration technique can TRL solution assummg 21 = O
be applied to a pair of reflectometers having
identical connectors of any type, not just sexless
connectors. This LRL~Line-Reflect-L ine) Figure 1. a) TRL technique for cahbrating a dual six-port or four-port
calibration technique is the subject of this reflectometer. b) LRL calibration kxhII@Ue where the ‘thru”
paper. is replaced with a short length of line.

665
1986 IEEE MTT-S Digest
0149-645 X/86/OOOO-0665$Ol .00 @ 1986 IEEE
 LRL EXAMPLES M–M Reference Planes:

a) Two pairs of lines: +1’+*

An example of the LRL calibration technique is ,11
shown in Figure 2a where both test-port connectors Line 1
When the (a)
are identical male connectors.
calibration using two lines and one or more ~ Reflect
terminations with female connectors is complete,
the S-parameters of two-port devices that have
+> “ < Line 2

female connectors on both ends can be measured.

F–F Reference Planes
Figure 2b shows an example where adapters have Add F–F Adapters
been added to obtain two female port connectors.
The LRL calibration can be applied to these new
test ports using lines and terminations with male (b)
connectors. Then two-port devices that have male
connectors on both ends can be measured.

To measure two-port devices that have one male and

one female connector, adapter C (or D) is removed
to obtain the test port configuration shown in
Figure 2c. The parameters for reflectometer A are M–F Reference Planes
known from the calibration in Figure 2a, and the Remove Adapter C (or D).
parameters for reflectometer configuration F are
known from the calibration in Figure 2b. Note
that the repeatability of adapter C (or D) is not (c)
important
used.
when this sequence of measurements is
+E1-+
Figure 2. Using a set of female standards and a set of male
The connector types used in Figure 2a and 2b can
standards to do a complete LRL calibration so that
be completely different. For example, those in
a two-port device with any combination of connectors
Figure 2a could be type N, while the connectors in
can be measured.
Figure 2b could be SMA. Two-ports that have a
female type N on one end and a male SMA on the
other end can then be measured as in Figure 2c.
The LRL calibration technique can also be applied M–M Reference Planes
if one set of connectors is waveguide, and the
other set is coax. -+Il’-+l@-
(a) ,,11
b) One Pair of Lines: Line 1
Only one pair of lines is needed to calibrate the
~+ Reflect
two reflectometers if the connectors on the
two-port under test are of the same type. For
+Jy’ ,- Line.2
example, to measure two-port devices that have any
combination of type N connectors, the
reflectometers are first calibrated with type N M-F Reference planes
male connectors as shown in Figure Sa. Then Measure adapter D.
a female-female type N adapter is measured as
shown in Figure 3b, and left connected to one of -+J-++YJ.+*
the reflectometers, say to B. Two-port devices
(b) Use A & D as new reference planes,
that have male–female type N connectors can now be
measured between A and D. To measure two-port
+ *+@’-
devices with two male type N connectors, one may
remove adapter D and measure the parameters of
another similar adapter C. As shown in Figure 3c,
leaving adapter C on reflectometer A, and F-F Reference Planes
reconnecting adapter D to reflectometer B provides Remove Adapter D, measure adapter C.
a pair of female test ports between which two-port
CIevices that have male COnneCtOPS can be measured. (c) *-+

LRL CALIBRATION
Reconnect adapter D.
The computations and software used in the TRL
+*
solution can also be used in the LRL solution with
only slight modifications. If a line of length .LI
Figure 3. Using one set of standards to do a complete
is used in the TRL calibration instead of a
LRL calibration when theconnector5 on the
“through” (1, = o) connection, the following
modifications to the error box parameters are device under test are the same type (but any
obtained: combination of sex).

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 DETERMINING YI!LI
b=bt (1)

cla = ctlat (2) To complete the LRL calibration, Yl!?.l must be

determined. Three methods for determining Yl!?,l
6=13~ (3) are outlined below.
f3/a = Bt/clt (4)
a) From 9,, and Ea.
a = ateyltl (5) If the lines !2,2 and 9., are made fr,om the same
a = a~eyl%’ (6) stock and their cross sectional dimensions are
sufficiently the same, we can assume that
Y*L2 - Y1il = (Yi)t (7)
Y2 = Y~. (lo)

The terms on the left of each equation are the Then (7) becomes
desired parameters. The corresponding parameters
on the right of each equation with a subscript t Y, (!12-!L1) = (Yi)t, (11)
are those obtained from the TRL solution. The
first four equations show that the four-port which gives
parameters b, cla, 6, and $/a are exactlY equal to
those obtained from the TRL solution. Equations Ylii = K (Yt)t, (12)
(5) and (6) show that the four-Port Parameters a
and a are scaled by eylk]. where

In the TRL calibration, the optimum electrical

length of the line is 90° (or an odd multiPle of
(13)

90”). Electrical lengths near 0° or 1800 (or even

The physical lengths JiI and tz of the two lines
multiples of 90°) must be avoided or the solution
can be measured to obtain a value for K.
becomes ill-conditioned. Equation (7) tells us
that when two lines are used, it is the difference
b) From a known r.
in the electrical lengths of the two lines which
Another way of obtaining Y,!., is from (8). If r
is optimally 90°, and which must not be near 0° or
is the known reflection coe-ff-icient of a highly
180”.
reflecting termination, then (8) gives

LRL FOR SEXLESS CONNECTORS

(14)
At higher frequencies the optimum length of line
for the TRL calibration can become physically too Note that a matched termination cannot be used
short to be practical. However, if two lines are because if r and I’t are both zero YILI cannot be
used, 9., can be some convenient length and t. determined.
slightly longer so that the difference in length
is electrically 90” in the center of the frequency c) From ~ of a short.
band. For this reason, one may want to use the If the highly reflecting termination is a short or
LRL calibration even for sexless connectors at an offset short with reflection Coefficients I’s,
higher frequencies. only the phase angle $s of l’s needs to be known.
To show this one may define the real and imaginary
EQUIVALENT REFERENCE PLANE parts of (Yk)t as

Equations (1) to (6) lead to (Y!t)t = (al)t + j(Bi)t. (15)

r = e-ylLlrt, (8) Then substituting (12) and (15) in (8) gives

which says that the reflection coefficient r of

each termination used in the “reflect” Irs ~j$s = e-K(aL)t e-JK(6L)t I rt lejv’~ . ( 6)
measurements, or any other r measurement, will
If K is real, (which is the case if Y,=Y,) then
differ from rt by the factor e “IL1 where rt is
the reflection coefficient obtained from at, bt, (16) expands into the following two equations
ct or at, 13t, 6t. If (8) is compared to the
Irsl= e-K(a~)tlrtl ( 7)
fOllOWing equation fOr transforming rL through a
nonreflecting line of length !t, (
‘!JS = -K(8k)t + $t. 8)
r - e-2YkrL, (9)
Since (y!)t is mostly imaginary, ($t)t iS known
we see that the effective reference plane of rt is much more accurately than (aL)t. For this reason
at L1/2 which is at the center of the line of we choose (18) to calculate K;
length il. This location agrees with our intuition
as to where the reference plane should be since (19)
TRL assumes i, = O.

667
Then I r~ I can be calculated from (17). Thus only
the phase angle @s of the short needs to be known.

For a flat short,

os = 180 - 12f6, degrees (20)

where f is the frequency in GHz and 6 is the skin

depth in centimeters into the face of the short
[2].

REFERENCE

[1] G. F. Engen and C. A. Hoer,

‘Thru-Reflect-Line An Improved
f : Technique for
Calibrating the Dual Six-Port ANA,” IEEE-MTT
vol. 27, No. 12, pp. 987-993, Dec. 1979

[2] P.I. Somlo, !!Re~ession depth in MetaliC

conductors at low frequencies,” Electronics
Letters, pp. 776-777, July 1971.

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