Developing RF Power Sensor Calibration Station in Direct Comparison Transfer System using Vector Network Analyzer

Abstract

Calibration of RF power sensors is crucial issue in RF power measurements. Many calibration laboratories use the direct comparison transfer system with a signal generator and a power splitter. Increasing performance of modern vector network analyzers makes it possible to perform a power sensor calibration with acceptable uncertainties. The main advantage when using a VNA is a simple measurement setup with a wide frequency range (up to 50 GHz, limited only by the VNA and the standard power sensor), where all of required components, i.e. signal generator, a directional coupler and a reference power indicator are built in the VNA technology. This paper reports performing a VNA-based RF power sensors calibration for 10 MHz – 18 GHz band, carried out in the Laboratory of Electric, Electronic and Optoelectronic Metrology at the National Institute of Telecommunications in Warsaw, Poland. In order to validate the proposed solution two of power sensors were calibrated at a reference laboratory. The validation consisted of two steps. At first, one of those characterized power sensors was calibrated at our laboratory in direct comparison transfer system. Finally, the results obtained from the VNA-based system were compared with the previously obtained ones. Keywords—direct comparison transfer, microwave power measurements, power sensor calibration, measurement uncertainty, VNA.