One of the most frequently asked questions we receive at Copper Mountain Technologies’ sales and support departments goes something like this: “What about calibration?” It’s an unfortunate reality that in the English language, Calibration has two completely distinct definitions. The first relates to checking out the instrument periodically to make sure it is operating within its specifications. “Performance test” is the procedure by which the analyzer performance is verified, typically annually. The second meaning is to do with Measurement or User calibration, a collection of techniques by which measurement accuracy is maximized and made to exclude elements of the system from those measurements (such as cables, adapters and the like). In this application note, we discuss both meanings of calibration as related to Copper Mountain Technologies’ Vector Network Analyzers (VNAs). First, we describe Annual Calibration and then later we discuss measurement calibration.

The examples created in this document are based on the S5048, but apply to most of the Copper Mountain Technologies VNAs in a similar way. These tips will help you use your VNA with ease and help you get more intuitive results.

USB VNAs separate the measurement module from the processing module, bringing the measurement results to any external PC using the VNA software. The user can take advantage of the latest OS processing power, bigger display, and more reliable performance of an external PC while simplifying maintenance of the analyzer. USB VNAs are flexible. They can be easily adapted to multiple users and are well-suited for lab, production, field, and secure testing environments.

Everyone knows that a good VNA should have both excellent hardware performance and an easy to use software interface with useful post-processing capabilities. There are numerous VNAs in the market with different performance levels; some of them are economy grade, and others are truly laboratory test grade. What separates the two?

High input power requirements of some Devices Under Test (DUTs) introduce challenges to the measurement therefore. Various measurement techniques such as load-pull analysis and noise figure measurement may also require a higher input power to the DUT than the maximum output power of the VNA.