Measurements of micromachined waveguide devices at WR-3 band using a T/R-T module based network analyzer

Making accurate and reliable measurements at WR-3 band is challenging. This is made more so when a T/R-T based test configuration is used. This paper compared the calibrations and measurements between a T/R-T and a full T/R-T/R configuration. The shortfall of load matching in the T/R-T configuration has been identified and described using signal flow analyses. The effects of both the device performance and the load match on the measurement uncertainty have been studied. The insertion of an attenuator at the T-module test port has been used to overcome the poor load matching, and significant improvements have been achieved on the measurements of micromachined waveguide devices.