Results of TSD Calibrated Scattering Parameter Measurements Performed on a Commercial ANA

The Through-Short-Delay (TSD) calibration method has been applied, for the first time, to the calibration and correction of measurements perfonned on a commercial automated network analyzer (ANA), located at the National Bureau of Standards, Boulder, Colorado. The processing of the calibration data and of the uncalibrated measurement data was performed, off-line, on a large scale timesharing facility using existing FORTRAN programs. The unprocessed calibration data and uncalibrated measurement data were obtained from the ANA in the form of data files on a floppy disk and transferred to the timesharing facility via a 9-track magnetic tape. A high degree of system repeatability has been demonstrated in this mode of operation. This was proven by mutual comparison of graphic displays of the corrected scattering parameters of multiple measurements of the same unknown and those of various pairs of error-two-ports (A and B), obtained from multiple calibration runs. These results clearly indicate the ultimate limits of resolution, accuracy and aynamic range of the system and point at the various limiting factors of the present hardware configuration.