Precision Measurement of Attenuation and Phase-Shift at Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Frequencies

PRECISION MEASUREMENT OF ATTENUATION
AND PHASE-SHIFT AT MICROWAVE AND
MILLIMETER-WAVE FREQUENCIES
WU YONG
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
A thesis submitted to the Nanyang Technological University
in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
2012
Acknowledgments
At this point, I would like to thank numerous professors during my graduate
studies at Nanyang Technological University. Among them, I am particularly grate-
ful to my supervisor, Professor Lu Yilong, for his excellent guidance, support and
encouragement.
I wish to thank the management of the National Metrology Center (NMC),
Agency for Science, Technology and Research, for encouraging me to pursue this
PhD research work. I would like to thank my colleagues for their support and
discussions.
I also wish to express my gratitude to numerous professors at Shandong Uni-
versity, Institute for High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) for their excellent teaching
and advice. I am indebted to Professors David Munson, Richard Blahut, Thomas
Huang, Li Tipei and Lin Baojun who have shown me how to carry out scientific
research work.
Finally, I would like to thank my family for their love, understanding, and
encouragement throughout the years.
i
Contents
Acknowledgments i
Summary viii
List of Figures xii
List of Tables xv
List of Acronyms xviii
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Motivation and Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.1 Precision Measurement and Metrology . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.2 Measurement Standards in the Electromagnetic Spectrum . 4
1.2 Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 Major Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.4 Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2 Research Background 15
2.1 Microwave Attenuation Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.1.1 Definition of Attenuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
ii
Contents
2.1.2 Attenuation Reference Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.1.3 Microwave Attenuation Measurement Systems . . . . . . . . 23
2.2 Microwave Phase-shift Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.2.1 Definition of Phase-shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.2.2 Phase-shift Reference Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.2.3 Microwave Phase-shift Measurement Systems . . . . . . . . 30
2.3 Millimeter-wave Technology and Metrology . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.3.1 Millimeter-wave Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.3.2 Millimeter-wave Attenuation Measurement . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.3.3 Millimeter-wave Phase-shift Measurement . . . . . . . . . . 37
3 Precision Measurement of Microwave Attenuation 39
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.2 Single-channel AF Substitution Attenuation Measurement . . . . . 42
3.3 Dual-channel AF Substitution Attenuation Measurement . . . . . . 45
3.4 Measurement Uncertainty Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.4.1 IVD Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.4.2 Mismatch Uncertainty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.4.3 Receiver Nonlinearity Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.4.4 Receiver Fluctuation and Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.4.5 RF Leakage Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.4.6 GBA Uncertainty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.4.7 Measurement repeatability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.4.8 Combined and Expanded Measurement Uncertainty . . . . 55
iii
Contents
3.5 Comparison of Single-channel and Dual-channel System . . . . . . . 56
3.5.1 Measurement of Low Attenuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.5.2 Measurement of High Attenuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.6 A Broadband Attenuation Measurement System at 0.05–26.5 GHz . 59
3.7 Measurement of a 0–110 dB Step Attenuator . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4 Analysis of Noise in the Microwave Attenuation Measurement Re-

ceiver 63
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.2 Measurement Receiver Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.2.1 Thermal Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.2.2 Phase Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.3 Phase Noise Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.3.1 Phase Sensitive Detection using a LIA . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.3.2 Phase Noise Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.3.3 Phase Noise Effect on Attenuation Measurement . . . . . . . 69
4.3.4 Phase Fluctuation Measured by the LIA . . . . . . . . . . . 72
4.3.5 Attenuation Measurement Error due to Phase Noise . . . . . 75
4.4 Noise Floor in a Dual-channel System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.4.1 Noise Measurement using the LIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.4.2 Receiver Noise Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.4.3 Receiver Dynamic Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.5 Attenuation Measurement Uncertainty due to Noise . . . . . . . . . 82
4.6 Measurement of Attenuation up to 170 dB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
iv
Contents
4.6.1 Dynamic Range Improvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
4.6.2 Measurement Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
4.6.3 Investigation of Leakage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4.7 Discussions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4.8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5 Microwave Phase-Shift Precision Measurement 90
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.2 A Precision Phase-Shift Measurement System at 0.05–18 GHz . . . 92
5.3.1 IVD Phase Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
5.3.2 Receiver Fluctuation and Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.3.3 Phase Drift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
5.3.4 GBA Phase-shift Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
5.3.6 Combined and Expanded Uncertainty . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
5.4 Phase-shift Measurement of a 0–140 dB Step Attenuator . . . . . . 101
5.4.1 Measurement Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
5.4.2 Investigation of Leakage Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
5.5 Microwave Phase-Shift Reference Standard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
5.6 System Verification using a Beadless Air Line . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
6 Millimeter-wave Attenuation Precision Measurement 109
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
v
Contents
6.2 Attenuation Measurement System at 75–110 GHz . . . . . . . . . . 112
6.2.1 System design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
6.2.2 Measurement method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
6.2.3 Measurement Uncertainty Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
6.2.4 Measurement of Attenuation up to 100 dB . . . . . . . . . . 120
6.2.5 Improvement of Receiver Dynamic Range . . . . . . . . . . . 121
6.3 Attenuation Measurement System at 140–220 GHz . . . . . . . . . 122
6.3.1 Measurement System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
6.3.2 Receiver Linearity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
6.3.3 Measurement of Attenuation up to 120 dB . . . . . . . . . . 125
6.3.4 Receiver Dynamic Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
6.4 Attenuation measurement System at 330–500 GHz . . . . . . . . . . 128
6.4.1 Phase Noise Effect in a Single-channel Measurement System 128
6.4.2 Dual-channel Measurement System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
6.4.3 Measurement of Attenuation up to 100 dB using a Dual-

channel System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
6.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
7 Millimeter-wave Phase-shift Precision Measurement 141
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
7.2 A 220–325 GHz Phase-shift Measurement System . . . . . . . . . . 144
7.3.1 Phase Error due to IVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
7.3.2 Receiver Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
7.3.3 Phase Drift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
vi
Contents
7.3.4 Phase-shift Calibration Error of GBA . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
7.3.6 Leakage Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
7.3.7 Combined and Expanded Uncertainty . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
7.4 Phase-shift Measurement of a 0–60 dB RVA . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
7.5 Investigation of Leakage Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
7.6 Millimeter-wave Phase-Shift Reference Standard . . . . . . . . . . . 156
7.7 System Verification using a Waveguide Shim . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
7.8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
8 Conclusion and Recommendations 159
8.1 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
8.2 Recommendations for Future Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Author’s Publications 165
Bibliography 167
vii
Summary
Various microwave attenuation and phase-shift measurement systems have been

developed by many national standard laboratories since 1950s. The measurement
dynamic range (DR), accuracy and frequency range of these continuous-wave sys-
tems need to be increased to meet the ever-increasing demands from the industry
and scientific research community. Microwave and millimeter-wave are increasingly
being used in broadband communications, radar, remote sensing, security imaging
and non-destructive testing (NDT). It is very important to design a high-sensitivity
receiver to detect microwave and millimeter-wave signals with high DR. There is a
growing demand for accurate attenuation and phase-shift measurement techniques
and reference standards at microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies, which are
critical for component and system development.
We have developed a novel microwave attenuation measurement system compris-

ing of a single-channel and a dual-channel heterodyne receiver at 0.05–26.5 GHz.
The DR of our proposed design is much higher than those reported in the literature.
The expanded measurement uncertainty is 0.0072–0.62 dB for a 0–160 dB coaxial
variable attenuator at 26 GHz. A voltage ratio of 1.0 × 10−8 at 26 GHz can be
measured with an expanded uncertainty of 7.4×10−10 . This measurement standard
is traceable to an inductive voltage divider (IVD) at 5.02 kHz. We have proposed
new ways to analyse the leakage error and noise floor in attenuation measurement,
which have not been well studied in the literature. For frequencies beyond 2 GHz,
the system employs a coherent frequency reference channel to minimize the phase
noise effect on lock-in amplifier sensitivity. The proposed receiver achieves a noise
floor around −172 dBm and a record high DR of 186.7 dB at 26 GHz. Our receiver
noise floor is 47 dB lower than that of a VNA at 26 GHz. The proposed system
can measure a step attenuator with attenuation up to 170 dB at 26 GHz with good
accuracy, which is not possible using other measurement systems.
A novel microwave phase-shift measurement system at 0.05–18 GHz has been

developed using dual-channel heterodyne receivers. Our design can suppress the
phase noise effect of the microwave sources and significantly improve the phase
viii
measurement accuracy for high attenuation devices. The accuracy of this proposed
system is much better than earlier published results. The phase-shift measurement
uncertainty is 0.09◦ –0.32◦ for a 0–140 dB coaxial step attenuator at 18 GHz. The
phase-shift measurement uncertainty of our system for a 100 dB attenuator at 18
GHz is ∼106 times smaller than that of a vector network analyzer (VNA). We have
analysed the mismatch uncertainty in insertion phase-shift measurement, which has
not been studied in the literature. A coaxial beadless air line has been used as a
phase-shift standard to verify the proposed phase-shift measurement system. The
calculated phase-shifts with correction of the line insertion loss agree with the
measured values within the expanded uncertainties.
We have developed three novel millimeter-wave attenuation measurement sys-

tems at 75–110 GHz, 140–220 GHz and 330–500 GHz. A commercial VNA has
a typical DR of 105 dB at 200 GHz and 104 dB at 500 GHz. The DR of our
proposed system is estimated to be 175 dB at 110 GHz, 163 dB at 220 GHz and
152 dB at 480 GHz, respectively, which are much higher than that of a VNA. The
measurement uncertainties (in dB scale) for a 30 dB attenuator at 220 GHz are
∼10 times smaller than that of a VNA. The attenuation measurement is traceable
to an IVD at 5.02 kHz. The measurement uncertainties for a 100 dB attenuator
are estimated to be 0.084 dB at 110 GHz, 0.11 dB at 220 GHz and 0.24 dB at
480 GHz, respectively. The DR of the proposed system is 58 dB higher than that
of a VNA at around 220 GHz. A voltage ratio of 3.0 × 10−5 at 480 GHz can be
measured with an expanded uncertainty of 6.0 × 10−7 . At room-temperature, our
proposed dual-channel heterodyne receivers have achieved a record low noise floor
at around −170 dBm at 480 GHz. The measurement systems have been verified
using several precision rotary vane attenuators (RVA).
A novel millimeter-wave phase-shift measurement standard at 220–325 GHz has

been proposed. The proposed dual-channel receiver design can measure the phase
of a millimeter-wave signal at 220–325 GHz accurately using a lock-in amplifier.
The differential phase-shift measurement uncertainty is estimated to be 0.58◦ –1.32◦
for a 0–60 dB RVA at 325 GHz. The phase-shift measurement uncertainty of the
proposed system for a 50 dB attenuator at 325 GHz is ∼44 times smaller than that
ix
of a VNA. A waveguide line standard has been measured as a phase-shift standard
to verify the proposed phase-shift measurement system. The calculated phase-
shifts agree with the measured values of the line standard within their expanded
uncertainties.
Previous systems for attenuation and phase-shift measurement have limited DR

since their noise floor is quite high due to the phase noise effect. This thesis has
shown that our proposed dual-channel heterodyne receiver design has significantly
reduced the measurement error in magnitude and phase due to phase noise at
microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies. Such a design can significantly im-
prove the sensitivity and DR in measurement of a microwave or millimeter-wave
signal using a lock-in amplifier with precise knowledge of the signal’s instantaneous
frequency.
A new measurement standard requires detailed measurement uncertainty analy-

sis to characterise its performance. We have evaluated the measurement errors and
uncertainties of the six new measurement standards proposed in this thesis. It has
been very difficult to estimate the leakage error in high attenuation measurement
since the leakage signal can not be separated from the noise. The leakage error
in phase-shift measurement has not been well studied in the literature. We have
proposed new methods to evaluate the leakage errors in attenuation and phase-
shift measurement for devices with high attenuation. This is critical for reliable
estimation of the measurement accuracy in high DR measurement.
These systems have been used as the Singapore national standards for attenu-
ation and phase-shift measurement at microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies.
Variable attenuators, air lines and waveguide shims calibrated by these systems
can provide traceability and serve as reference standards for calibration of VNAs,
power meters, radiometers, spectrum analyzers, etc. The dual-channel design using
multipliers and subharmonic mixers can be used at 0.5–1.1 THz and the receiver
noise floor is expected to be much lower than that of a VNA since it is mainly
determined by the receiver thermal noise. The proposed measurement techniques
can also be used to achieve high DR in instrumentation, wireless communication,
radar, imaging, spectroscopy, NDT, material measurement, etc.
x
List of Figures
1.1 Measurement standards for various bands in the electromagnetic

spectrum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1 A 2-port network between a generator and a load. . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2 A waveguide-below-cutoff (WBCO) standard attenuator at the NPL

[1]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.3 A 0–60 dB RVA in our laboratory at the National Metrology Centre. 20
2.4 A reference step attenuator used in our laboratory at the National

Metrology Centre. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.5 A 4-decade inductive voltage divider, where the input voltage is V

and the output voltage is 0.3754 V. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.6 A programmable seven-decade IVD in our laboratory at the National

Metrology Centre. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.7 An attenuation measurement system using power ratio method. . . 23
2.8 An attenuation measurement system using WBCO-based IF substi-

tution method. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.9 An attenuation measurement system using IVD-based AF substitu-

tion method. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.10 A VNA for measurement of microwave transmission and reflection

coefficient of a two-port device. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
xii
List of Figures
2.11 A beadless air line in our laboratory at the National Metrology Centre. 30
3.1 Block diagram of a single-channel AF substitution microwave atten-

uation measurement system (50 MHz – 26.5 GHz). The frequency
reference signal of the lock-in amplifier is provided by a function
generator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.2 Block diagram of a dual-channel microwave attenuation measure-

ment system (50 MHz – 26.5 GHz). The frequency reference signal
of the lock-in amplifier is provided by a reference channel. . . . . . 46
3.3 The magnitude and phase of the signal detected by LIA with ∼370
dB attenuation inserted between test ports in the dual-channel re-
ceiver at 26 GHz, data collected in 120 seconds (one sample per
second). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.4 Comparison of the standard uncertainty due to LIA reading fluc-

tuation using single-channel and dual-channel systems for a 10 dB
attenuation measurement from 50 MHz to 26.5 GHz. . . . . . . . . 57
4.1 Block diagram for a single-channel microwave attenuation measure-

ment receiver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.2 The SSB phase noise L(f) of the microwave sources, based on the
instrument specifications at 250–500 MHz, 3–10 GHz, 10–20 GHz
and 20–30 GHz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.3 The maximum phase fluctuation measured by the LIA and the pre-
dicted values using the phase noise data shown in Fig. 4.2 (frequency
range: 0.05–26 GHz). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.4 The standard attenuation measurement uncertainty due to phase

noise effect using single-channel system for the frequency range: (a)
0.05–2 GHz, (b) 2–26 GHz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
xiii
List of Figures
4.5 (a): The magnitude and phase of the signal detected by LIA with
110 dB attenuation inserted between test ports in the dual-channel
receiver at 26 GHz, data collected in 120 seconds (one sample per
second), (b): smoothed magnitude data obtained by (4.28) using the
raw magnitude data shown in (a). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
5.1 Block diagram of the dual-channel heterodyne phase-shift measure-

ment system from 50 MHz to 18 GHz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
5.2 Maximum error due to mismatch in differential phase-shift measure-

ment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
5.3 Maximum error due to mismatch in insertion phase-shift measure-

ment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
5.4 The cross-section of a beadless air line. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
6.1 Block diagram of a dual-channel millimeter-wave attenuation mea-

surement system in 75–110 GHz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
6.2 Block diagram of a 140–220 GHz attenuation measurement system

using dual-channel superheterodyne receivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

using single-channel superheterodyne receiver. . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
6.4 The SSB phase noise of the microwave sources (based on the in-
strument specification at 2.5 GHz and 13.75–20.83 GHz) and the
calculated phase noise of the sub-millimeter wave source obtained
using (6.14). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
6.5 The measured magnitude and phase of the AF signal down-converted

from a signal at 480 GHz using the single-channel system, with 10
dB attenuator inserted between the test ports. . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

using dual-channel superheterodyne receivers . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
xiv
List of Figures
6.7 The measured magnitude and phase of the AF signal down-converted

from a signal at 480 GHz using the dual-channel system, with 10 dB
attenuator inserted between the test ports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
7.1 Block diagram of a dual-channel millimeter-wave phase-shift mea-

surement system from 220 GHz to 325 GHz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
7.2 Error in phase-shift measurement due to millimeter-wave leakage. . 150
7.3 Maximum error in phase-shift measurement due to millimeter-wave

leakage for various attenuation differences between DUT path and
leakage path. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
7.4 Maximum error in phase-shift measurement due to millimeter-wave

leakage for DUT with attenuation from 10 dB to 80 dB. . . . . . . 152
7.5 A WR-03 0–60 dB RVA used in our laboratory at the National

Metrology Centre. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
7.6 A WR-03 waveguide shim used in our laboratory at the National

Metrology Centre. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
xv
List of Tables
2.1 Comparison of Microwave Attenuation Measurement Methods . . . 27
2.2 Comparison of Microwave Phase-shift Measurement Methods . . . . 31
2.3 Comparison of Millimeter-wave Attenuation Measurement Methods 36
2.4 Comparison of Millimeter-wave Phase-shift Measurement Methods . 38
3.1 A check of receiver nonlinearity by repeated measurement of a 0–10

dB step attenuator at decreasing mixer RF input levels at 5 GHz. 50
3.2 Comparison of linearity of the single-channel and the dual-channel

systems by the measurement of a 0–40 dB step attenuator at 5 GHz. 58
3.3 0–110 dB attenuation measurement uncertainty budget at 26 GHz

using the broadband measurement system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.4 Attenuation measurement results of a 0-110 dB synthesized step at-

tenuator (formed by connecting two 0-90 dB step attenuators which
are referred to as DU T1 and DU T2 ) at 26 GHz. . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.1 Attenuation measurement results of a synthesized step attenuator

at its 120-170 dB range (formed by connecting two 0-90 dB step
attenuators which are referred to as DU T1 and DU T2 ) at 26 GHz. . 85
4.2 Measurement of incremental attenuations (A1 ) from 120 dB to 170

dB with reference to the 110 dB setting at 26 GHz (DU T1 set to 90
dB, DU T2 varying from 20 dB to 80 dB). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
xvi
List of Tables
4.3 Measurement of DU T2 incremental attenuations (A2 ) from 30 dB to

80 dB with reference to its 20 dB setting at 26 GHz and comparison
with measurements A1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.1 Uncertainty budget for differential phase-shift measurement of a 0–

140 dB coaxial step attenuator at 18 GHz (uncertainty components
are estimated in degrees). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
5.2 Differential phase-shift measurement results of a 0–140 dB synthe-

sized coaxial step attenuator at 18 GHz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
5.3 Differential phase-shift measurement results of DU T2 from 0 dB to

50 dB at 18 GHz, with DU T1 set to 90 dB and inserted between
port 1 and DU T2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
5.4 Calibration value for the differential phase-shift of DU T2 from 0 dB

to 50 dB at 18 GHz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
5.5 Measured and calculated phase-shift of a beadless air line with 7 mm

connector at 2 GHz and 18 GHz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
6.1 Measurement of the nonlinearity and leakage error of the attenuation

measurement system at 110 GHz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
6.2 Measurement of the leakage error in the attenuation measurement

system at 110 GHz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
6.3 Uncertainty estimation for measurement of a 0–100 dB SVA at 110

GHz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
6.4 Measurement results of a 0–100 dB SVA at 110 GHz . . . . . . . . 121
6.5 Measurement of the receiver nonlinearity error at 220 GHz . . . . . 124
6.6 Uncertainty estimation for measurement of the 0–120 dB SVA at

220 GHz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
6.7 Measurement results of a 0–120 dB synthesized rotary vane attenu-

ator at 220 GHz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
xvii
List of Tables
6.8 Uncertainty estimation for measurement of a 0–100 dB SVA at 480

GHz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
6.9 Measurement results of a 0–100 dB SVA at 480 GHz . . . . . . . . 138
6.10 Measurement of the VA2 at 480 GHz at receiver input levels that
are 42 dB lower than those given in Table 6.9 . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
7.1 Uncertainty budget for differential phase-shift measurement of a 0–

60 dB RVA at 325 GHz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
7.2 Differential phase-shift results of a 0–60 dB WR-03 RVA at 325 GHz 154
7.3 Differential phase-shift measurement of the same WR-03 RVA at 325

GHz when the signal levels at port 2 are 20 dB lower than those in
Table 7.2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
7.4 Comparison of measured and calculated insertion phase-shift of a

waveguide shim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
xviii
List of Acronyms
AC Alternating current
AF Audio Frequency
ARFTG Automatic RF Techniques Group
APMP Asia-Pacific Metrology Programme
BIPM Bureau International des Poids et Mesures
BP Band-pass
CCEM Consultative Committee for Electricity and Magnetism
CMBR Cosmic microwave background radiation
DC Direct current
DR Dynamic range
DUT Device under test
GBA Gauge block attenuator
GHz Gigahertz
IF Intermediate Frequency
IVD Inductive voltage divider
kHz Kilohertz
LF Low frequency
xix
LIA Lock-in Amplifier
LNA Low noise amplifier
LO Local Oscillator
LP Low-pass
LSA Level set attenuator
MHz Megahertz
NBS National Bureau of Standards
NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology
NMC National Metrology Centre
NDT Non-destructive testing
NPL National Physical Laboratory
PLL Phase-locked loop
PTB Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt
QO Quasi-optical
RF Radio Frequency
RMS Root Mean Square
RSS Root-sum-of-the-squares
RVA Rotary Vane Attenuator
SNR Signal-to-Noise Ratio
SSB Single sideband
SVA Synthesized variable attenuator
TDS Time domain spectroscopy
xx
THz Terahertz
VA Variable attenuator
VNA Vector Network Analyser
WBCO Waveguide below-cutoff
xxi
“When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it
in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot express
it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind;
it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your
thoughts, advanced to the stage of science whatever the matter may
be.”
– Lord Kelvin (1824–1907)
“Why should one wish to make measurements with ever increasing

precision? Because the whole history of physics proves that a new dis-
covery is likely to be found lurking in the next decimal place.”
– Floyd K. Richtmyer (1881–1939)
“With better measuring tools, one can look where no one has looked
before. More than once, seemingly minute differences between measure-
ment and theory have led to major advances in fundamental knowledge.
The birth of modern science itself is intimately linked to the art of ac-
curate measurements.”
– Theodor W. Hänsch (1941– )

Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Motivation and Background
1.1.1 Precision Measurement and Metrology
Metrology is the science of measurement. A metrologist must consider the un-
certainty of measurement in any field of science or technology. Metrology is very
important to the scientific research and industrial development. Measurements
have been carried out ever since civilisation started.
It is important to have precise and accurate measurements. Complicated in-
struments have been built to make accurate measurements. New measurement
techniques and instruments need to be developed to constantly improve the mea-
surement accuracy and precision so that they can satisfy the ever-increasing de-
mand from various application areas.
Standards are objects that are designated as being authoritative. Calibration
is the comparison of the instrument measurement to a reference standard so as to
determine the measurement errors. The accuracy of the reference standard must
1
1.1. Motivation and Background
be at least 4 or 5 times better than that of the instrument to be calibrated. The
linkage to national standards through comparisons and calibrations is known as
the ‘traceability’ [2].
Precise and accurate measurement has played a key role in the advancement of
science and technology [3, 4]. The art of measurements has enabled scientists to
observe the nature with ever increasing precision and accuracy, which has led to
numerous discoveries in modern science.
The cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) was discovered in 1965 as
a result of accurate measurement of the excess noise in a microwave radiometer at
4.08 GHz [5,6]. The noise temperature of the radiometer has been calibrated using
a cryogenic noise source and microwave attenuators [7]. After careful analysis
of the measurement errors, the CMBR temperature was estimated to be 3.5 ±
1.0 K [6]. The measurement of CMBR temperature is very important in precision
cosmology to investigate the origin of the universe [8]. Currently, the most accurate
measurement of CMBR temperature is 2.72548 ± 0.00057 K [9]. The precision
measurement of CMBR temperature has definitively determined the age of the
universe to be 13.73 ± 0.12 billion years old [10].
Cesium clocks have been the established primary standard for time and fre-
quency since 1950s. The resonance frequency of cesium atom is 9,192,631,770 Hz,
which can be used to steer an external microwave oscillator to match this stable
frequency. A cesium fountain clock developed by the National Institute of Stan-
dards and Technology (NIST) has achieved a fractional uncertainty below 4 part
in 1016 [11].
It was discovered in 2000 that an optical frequency comb can be used as a pre-
cise ruler in frequency space to measure optical frequencies of hundreds of terahertz
2
(THz) [4, 12, 13]. The frequency ratio between the second harmonic of an Nd:YAG
laser and the fundamental frequency has been measured with a relative uncer-
tainty of 7 parts in 1019 using such a frequency comb [4, 14]. Very narrow optical
resonances in cold atoms currently can be measured accurately. Hence a narrow
optical resonance can be used to lock a laser, which can serve as a stable oscillator
(optical atomic clock). The NIST has built an optical clock with a fractional fre-
quency uncertainty below 8.6 parts in 1018 , based on quantum logic spectroscopy
of an Al+ ion (with a transition frequency of 1,121 THz) [15, 16]. Such a precision
clock would remain accurate to within one second in ∼3.69 billion years. Precision
clocks are very useful in scientific research, communications, navigation and space
exploration. An optical clock could provide very accurate distance measurement.
The root-mean-square charge radius of the proton has been found to be rp =
0.84184 ±0.00067 fm [17], which is different by 5.0 standard deviations from the
value recommended by the Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CO-
DATA) for international use [18]. This has been obtained by accurate measurement
of the Lamb shift frequency (49,881.88 ± 0.76 GHz) in muonic hydrogen atoms us-
ing an optical frequency comb [17]. The CODATA value for rp is 0.8768 ± 0.0069
fm. The accuracy of the latest measurement is 10 times better than the CODATA
value. The newly measured proton radius is 4% smaller than the CODATA value.
This finding implies that either the Rydberg constant has to be revised, or the
quantum electrodynamics effects might need to be re-calculated [17]. This unex-
pected result shows precision measurement on the scale of 10−20 m could lead to
new discoveries in physics.
Femtosecond spectroscopy has been used to capture ultrafast chemical reaction
in molecules and dynamic behavior of matter using laser pulses with duration of
60 fs (1 fs = 10−15 s) [19, 20]. Attosecond spectroscopy of bound electrons with
3
a time resolution of ≤ 150 as (1 as = 10−18 s) has been made possible using soft
X-ray pulse with duration of 650 ± 150 as and a few-cycle visible light pulse [21].
Attosecond metrology in the future is expected to use pulses with duration of 24
as to monitor electrons with sub-atomic resolution in both space and time, which
will have great impact on physics, chemistry, biology and future technologies [22].
1.1.2 Measurement Standards in the Electromagnetic Spec-
trum
Research works for establishment, maintenance and measurement of direct current
(DC) and low frequency (LF) standards have been carried out for more than 100
years [23, 24]. High-accuracy DC and LF electrical standards and measurement
systems have been developed by many national metrology institutes [25, 26]. Over
the last two decades, quantum Hall resistance standards and voltage standards
based on Josephson junction array have been developed to achieve higher precision
and accuracy [27–32].
The existence of electromagnetic waves was predicted by James Maxwell in 1864
from his equations [33]. In 1887-1888, Heinrich Hertz demonstrated the existence
of electromagnetic waves by building apparatus that produced and detected mi-
crowaves at 56.5 MHz and 500 MHz [34]. Radio frequency (RF) and microwave
technology have been widely used in wireless communications, radar, aerospace,
radio astronomy, medical diagnosis and material evaluation [5, 6, 35–39].
Research works on RF and microwave precision measurement techniques be-
gan in 1920s [40–42]. The microwave power [43–46], attenuation [47–54], phase-
shift [55–64], reflection coefficient [65–70], thermal noise [71–79], frequency and
phase noise [80–83] are the key microwave parameters for measurement via coaxial
4
cable or waveguide connection. The field strength and antenna gain are the key
parameters for microwave measurement in free space [84, 85]. Reference and mea-
surement standards for these parameters have been developed and established in
many national metrology institutes [85–91].
Optical measurement standards for radiometry and photometry have been well
established in many countries [92]. Most of the electromagnetic spectrum has been
used for various applications, such as radar, microwave ovens, radios, wireless com-
munications, X-rays, lasers, etc. Millimeter-wave refers to the radiation from 30
GHz to 300 GHz and sub-millimeter wave refers to the radiation from 300 GHz
to 3000 GHz [93, 94]. They are between the microwave and optics band in the
electromagnetic spectrum. Millimeter-wave and sub-millimeter wave are the final
frontier in the electromagnetic spectrum which is yet to be fully utilized. Measure-
ment standards for power, attenuation, reflection coefficient, thermal noise, phase
noise and antenna at frequencies beyond 100 GHz are being developed by several
national metrology institutes [95]. Fig. 1.1 shows the measurement standards for
various bands in the electromagnetic spectrum.

Figure 1.1: Measurement standards for various bands in the electromagnetic spec-
trum.
5
1.2. Objectives
1.2 Objectives
Microwave and millimeter-wave are increasingly being used in broadband communi-
cations, radar, remote sensing, security imaging and non-destructive testing (NDT)
[38, 96–102]. Communication systems at 60 GHz and 300 GHz, automotive radars
at 77 GHz and imaging radars at 220 GHz have been developed [37,96,103–108]. A
security imaging system at 500 GHz has been developed to produce high-resolution
images [109]. Millimeter-wave transmission loss through waveguide or free space
is very high and the output power of continuous-wave sources at millimeter-wave
frequency is quite low. It is very important to design a high-sensitivity receiver
to detect microwave and millimeter-wave signals with high dynamic range (DR).
There is a growing demand for accurate attenuation and phase-shift measurement
techniques and reference standards at microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies,
which are critical for component and system development.
The microwave attenuation per unit length for some low-loss materials (loss
tangent < 0.0005) could be below 0.1 dB/cm at 10 GHz [110]. For thin dielectric
materials with a thickness of 0.1 mm [111], the microwave attenuation through the
material could be merely 0.001 dB. Hence very accurate attenuation measurement
system with uncertainty below 0.01 dB is required to measure such a material.
Precision microwave measurement technique is important for the design of high-
sensitivity radiometers and receivers which are widely used in high-speed com-
munications, radar, imaging, non-destructive testing and material analysis [37, 38,
96, 98, 112]. High DR and calibrated measurement at microwave frequencies can
greatly improve the quality of images formed by microwave cameras for security
and biomedical imaging systems [38, 98]. A microwave imaging system requires a
DR beyond 115 dB to image biological tissues [99]. Antenna characterization and
6
1.2. Objectives
filter design require wide measurement DR which is beyond 100 dB [113–115].
Various microwave attenuation measurement systems have been developed by
many national standard laboratories since 1950s. The measurement DR, accuracy
and frequency range of these continuous-wave systems need to be increased to meet
the ever-increasing demands from the industry and scientific research community.
As reported in the literature, the current microwave attenuation measurement stan-
dards have limited DR of 80 dB at 18–26.5 GHz [116]. This thesis will study how to
achieve an attenuation measurement DR beyond 150 dB using novel measurement
methods. The phase noise effect plays a key role in the noise floor of various mi-
crowave receivers. We will analyse this effect and investigate on new ways to reduce
the noise floor to a record low level. We will also investigate the leakage error in
attenuation measurement, which is rather difficult to evaluate in high attenuation
measurement [117].
Accurate determination of the microwave phase is very important in microwave
engineering. In a K-band satellite ranging system used for mapping the global
gravity field, an accuracy of 0.3◦ in microwave phase measurement is required to
achieve a 10 micrometer accuracy in ranging [118]. In a holographic antenna mea-
surement system, a phase measurement accuracy of 0.3◦ is required to ensure the
antenna surface map is measured accurately at 100 GHz [119]. Precision measure-
ment of insertion phase delay of the radome (a structural enclosure that protects
a radar antenna) requires a microwave phase measurement accuracy of 0.1◦ [120].
A microwave phase-shift measurement system reported in the literature [121]
has achieved good accuracy (around 0.1◦ ) for a device with attenuation of 140
dB at 60 MHz. The phase-shift measurement uncertainty using a vector network
analyzer (VNA) could reach 19◦ at 18 GHz for a device with attenuation of 100
dB. The increase in phase measurement uncertainty is mainly due to the decreased
7
1.2. Objectives
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as the device attenuation increases. This thesis will
study how to achieve accurate phase-shift measurement at 0.05–18 GHz for devices
with high attenuation up to 140 dB. We will also investigate the verification of such
a system using an air line as the phase-shift reference standard.
A single-channel IVD based attenuation measurement standard at 50–75 GHz
has been developed with expanded uncertainties of 0.004–0.13 dB for a measure-
ment range up to 80 dB [117]. This measurement standard can provide traceability
for attenuation measurement at 60 GHz, which is important for wireless commu-
nications [103, 104]. Currently millimeter-wave attenuation at higher frequencies
beyond 75 GHz is measured by a VNA, with an expanded uncertainty of 0.33
dB at 110 GHz, 0.23 dB at 220 GHz and 0.78 dB at 330 GHz for a 30 dB at-
tenuator [122–124]. Attenuation measurement standards with higher accuracy are
needed for higher frequencies beyond 75 GHz to provide traceability for such mea-
surements.
In this thesis, we will focus our research on millimeter-wave attenuation at fre-
quencies within 75–500 GHz, which have important applications in radar, com-
munications and security imaging. The frequency bands at 75–110 GHz (WR-10
band), 140–220 GHz (WR-05 band) and 330–500 GHz (WR-2.2 band) will be se-
lected to study the measurement accuracy and receiver noise effect at increasing
frequencies within 75–500 GHz. Measurement uncertainty analysis performed at
the three selected bands will show the mismatch error, leakage error and phase-
noise induced instability effect. Similar techniques can be used for attenuation
measurement at other frequency bands within 50–500 GHz. The uncertainty anal-
ysis at WR-10, WR-05 and WR-2.2 bands helps to predict the performance of
attenuation measurement system using dual-channel receivers at other frequencies
within 50–500 GHz.
8
1.2. Objectives
A millimeter-wave phase-shift measurement standard has been studied using a
VNA and an air line with 1.85 mm connector at 5–65 GHz [125]. An air line (with
1.85 mm connector) can be used as the phase-shift reference standard and provide
traceability in phase-shift measurement for wireless communication applications
at 60 GHz [103, 104]. The increasing demand for fast wireless data transmission
applications requires communication systems at 300 GHz [106]. The transmission
phase-shift of a 30 dB attenuator can be measured by a VNA, with an expanded
uncertainty of 5.39◦ at 220–325 GHz. A phase-shift measurement standard with
higher accuracy is needed for frequencies around 300 GHz to provide traceability
for such measurements.
This thesis will investigate on the phase-shift precision measurement technique
at 220–325 GHz (WR-03 band). The WR-03 band has been selected to study
the phase-shift measurement accuracy using a proposed dual-channel receiver de-
sign. Similar design can be used for phase-shift measurement at other bands within
50–500 GHz. The measurement uncertainty analysis of the proposed phase-shift
system at WR-03 band can be used to predict the performance of phase-shift mea-
surement systems using dual-channel design at other bands within 50–500 GHz.
The phase-shift measurement using dual-channel receivers at 50–220 GHz is ex-
pected to have slightly better accuracy compared to the WR-03 band, due to
higher SNR and lower mismatch uncertainty. A dual-channel system at 330–500
GHz is expected to have slightly higher phase-shift measurement uncertainty than
that at the WR-03 band, due to lower SNR and higher mismatch uncertainty.
9
1.3. Major Contributions
1.3 Major Contributions
We have developed a novel microwave attenuation measurement system comprising
of a single-channel and a dual-channel heterodyne receiver at 0.05–26.5 GHz. The
DR of our proposed design is much higher than those reported in the literature
[116, 126–132]. The expanded measurement uncertainty is 0.0072–0.62 dB for a
0–160 dB coaxial variable attenuator at 26 GHz. A voltage ratio of 1.0 × 10−8
at 26 GHz can be measured with an expanded uncertainty of 7.4 × 10−10 . This
measurement standard is traceable to an inductive voltage divider (IVD) at 5.02
kHz. We have proposed new ways to analyse the leakage error and noise floor
in attenuation measurement, which have not been well studied in the literature.
For frequencies beyond 2 GHz, the system employs a coherent frequency reference
channel to minimize the phase noise effect on lock-in amplifier sensitivity. The
proposed receiver achieves a noise floor around −172 dBm and a record high DR
of 186.7 dB at 26 GHz. Our receiver noise floor is 47 dB lower than that of a VNA
at 26 GHz. The proposed system can measure a step attenuator with attenuation
up to 170 dB at 26 GHz with good accuracy, which is not possible using other
measurement systems.
GHz is ∼106 times smaller than that of a vector network analyzer (VNA) [133].
10
We have analysed the mismatch uncertainty in insertion phase-shift measurement,
which has not been studied in the literature. A coaxial beadless air line has been
used as a phase-shift standard to verify the proposed phase-shift measurement
system. The calculated phase-shifts with correction of the line insertion loss agree
with the measured values within the expanded uncertainties.
tems at 75–110 GHz, 140–220 GHz and 330–500 GHz. A commercial VNA has a
typical DR of 105 dB at 200 GHz and 104 dB at 500 GHz [134]. The DR of our
proposed system for a 50 dB attenuator at 325 GHz is ∼44 times smaller than
11
that of a VNA [122, 124]. A waveguide line standard has been measured as a
calculated phase-shifts agree with the measured values of the line standard within
their expanded uncertainties.
frequency.
sis to characterise its performance [129, 135–138]. We have evaluated the measure-
ment errors and uncertainties of the six new measurement standards proposed in
this thesis. It has been very difficult to estimate the leakage error in high attenua-
tion measurement since the leakage signal can not be separated from the noise [117].
The leakage error in phase-shift measurement has not been well studied in the liter-
ature. We have proposed new methods to evaluate the leakage errors in attenuation
and phase-shift measurement for devices with high attenuation. This is critical for
reliable estimation of the measurement accuracy in high DR measurement.
12
1.4. Organization
1.4 Organization
Chapter 1 presents the motivations, objectives and major contributions of this
thesis. Research backgrounds on attenuation and phase-shift measurement at mi-
crowave and millimeter-wave frequencies are given in Chapter 2.
The design, development and measurement uncertainty analysis of a novel mi-
crowave attenuation system at 0.05–26.5 GHz are given in Chapter 3. In Chapter
4, the phase noise effect, noise floor and dynamic range analysis of the attenuation
measurement receiver from 50 MHz to 26.5 GHz are presented. A 120–170 dB step
attenuator is measured to verify the system performance.
Chapter 5 proposed a new microwave phase-shift precision measurement system
at 0.05–18 GHz using dual-channel heterodyne receivers. The phase-shift measure-
ment uncertainty has been carefully analysed. The measurement system is verified
using a beadless air line as a phase-shift reference standard.
Novel millimeter-wave attenuation measurement techniques and systems at 75–
110 GHz, 140–220 GHz and 330–500 GHz are presented in Chapter 6. The mea-
surement uncertainties, DR and leakage error are analysed. Measurement results
of several precision RVAs are presented.
A novel millimeter-wave phase-shift measurement system at 220–325 GHz is
13
1.4. Organization
proposed in Chapter 7 with detailed uncertainty analysis. A WR-03 waveguide
line standard is used as a phase-shift standard to verify the measurement system.
Finally, conclusions and recommendation for future work are given in Chapter
8.
14
Chapter 2
Research Background
2.1 Microwave Attenuation Measurement
Compared to signals at lower frequency range, microwave signals have higher prop-
agation loss during transmission through cables or waveguides. The reflected power
will be significant if proper impedance match between the devices are not achieved.
In a microwave system, it is very important to reduce the losses in the vari-
ous parts of the system. Attenuation measurement is essential when microwave
components are developed and tested. A VNA [89] or a dedicated attenuation
measurement system [139, 140] has been used for such measurements. Various
microwave attenuation measurement systems and standards have been developed
since 1960s [54, 126, 141–148].
Precision microwave attenuators have been used in calibration of radiometer
and noise temperature measurement which has led to the discovery of the CMBR
at around 3.5 K [5, 6, 76]. Microwave attenuators are also used to check the noise
temperature and linearity of a communication receiver or radiometer [77, 91, 115,
149]. Calibrated microwave step attenuators can be used as reference standards to
15
2.1. Microwave Attenuation Measurement
check and correct the linearity errors of various microwave power meters, network
analyser and spectrum analysers [91, 139, 140]. Thus attenuation standard is very
important to other microwave standards for power, reflection coefficient and noise.
2.1.1 Definition of Attenuation
Insertion Loss
When a generator is connected to a load with a reflection coefficient ΓL , the power
dissipated in the load is denoted as P1 . The reflection coefficient of the generator is
ΓG . If a 2-port network is inserted between the generator and the load, the power
dissipated in the load is denoted as P2 . The insertion loss [140, 141] of the 2-port
network is defined by
P1
LI = 10 log10 (2.1)
P2
The attenuation of the 2-port network is defined as the insertion loss when ΓG = 0
and ΓL = 0. The scattering parameters of the 2-port network is defined as
b1 = s11 a1 + s12 a2 (2.2)
b2 = s21 a1 + s22 a2 (2.3)
a1 b2
2-port
Generator ΓG ΓL Load
network
b1 a2
Figure 2.1: A 2-port network between a generator and a load.
Fig. 2.1 shows the 2-port network, the generator and the load. Let bG denotes
the signal from the generator [90, 139, 140], we have
b2 s21
= (2.4)
bG (1 − ΓG s11 )(1 − ΓL s22 ) − ΓG ΓL s12 s21
16
The power dissipated in the load P2 is:
|b2 |2
P2 = (1 − |ΓL |2 ) (2.5)
Z0
where Z0 is the real characteristic impedance of the transmission system. Using
(2.4), P2 can be written as
|bG |2 |s21 |2 (1 − |ΓL |2 )

P2 = (2.6)
Z0 |(1 − ΓG s11 )(1 − ΓL s22 ) − ΓG ΓL s12 s21 |2
The power dissipated in the load when the generator is directly connected to
the load can be derived by letting s11 = s22 = 0 and s21 = s12 = 1:
|bG |2 (1 − |ΓL |2 )
P1 = (2.7)
Z0 |1 − ΓG ΓL |2
Thus the insertion loss becomes
|(1 − ΓG s11 )(1 − ΓL s22 ) − ΓG ΓL s12 s21 |

LI = 20 log10 (2.8)
|s21 | · |1 − ΓG ΓL |
The attenuation of the 2-port network is defined as
1
A = 20 log10 (2.9)
|s21 |
We can see that A = LI when ΓG = ΓL = 0. In reality, ΓG 6= 0, and ΓL 6= 0, thus
the mismatch error in insertion loss measurement is given by
|(1 − ΓG s11 )(1 − ΓL s22 ) − ΓG ΓL s12 s21 |

eI = LI − A = 20 log10 (2.10)
|1 − ΓG ΓL |
Substitution Loss
When a 2-port network with scattering parameters s11b , s12b , s22b and s21b is con-
nected between the generator and the load, the power dissipated in the load is
|bG |2 |s21b |2 (1 − |ΓL |2 )

P3 = (2.11)
Z0 |(1 − ΓG s11b )(1 − ΓL s22b ) − ΓG ΓL s12b s21b |2
17
Suppose this 2-port network is replaced by another one with scattering parameters
s11e , s12e , s22e and s21e , then the power dissipated in the load becomes
|bG |2 |s21e |2 (1 − |ΓL |2 )

P4 = (2.12)
Z0 |(1 − ΓG s11e )(1 − ΓL s22e ) − ΓG ΓL s12e s21e |2
The substitution loss [140, 141] is defined as
P3
Ls = 10 log10 (2.13)
P4
and we have
|s21b | · |(1 − ΓG s11e )(1 − ΓL s22e ) − ΓG ΓL s12e s21e |

Ls = 20 log10 (2.14)
|s21e | · |(1 − ΓG s11b )(1 − ΓL s22b ) − ΓG ΓL s12b s21b |
The attenuation difference between the initial and final 2-port network is
1 1
Ainc = 20 log10 − 20 log10 (2.15)
|s21e | |s21b |
Ainc is also called the incremental attenuation. We can see that Ainc = Ls when
ΓG = ΓL = 0. In reality, ΓG 6= 0, and ΓL 6= 0, thus the mismatch error in
incremental attenuation measurement is given by
|(1 − ΓG s11e )(1 − ΓL s22e ) − ΓG ΓL s12e s21e |

einc = Ls − Ainc = 20 log10 (2.16)
|(1 − ΓG s11b )(1 − ΓL s22b ) − ΓG ΓL s12b s21b |
2.1.2 Attenuation Reference Standards
Waveguide Below-cutoff Attenuators
A waveguide below-cutoff (WBCO) attenuator is a non-resistive continuously vari-
able attenuation standard [1, 41, 47, 48, 52, 150–153]. It propagates a single evanes-
cent mode down a uniform waveguide. The incremental attenuation of a WBCO
attenuator can be predicted from its dimensions with very high accuracy. A WBCO
attenuator can serve as an almost ideal primary attenuation standard.
18
A sinusoidal signal at a frequency below cutoff is excited in a waveguide section,
with its field strength having an exponential decay along the axis. The amount
of field strength decay can be calculated based on the waveguide cross-sectional
dimensions. A moving probe with coupling of the field inside the guide will give
a microwave signal output level which can be calculated. Thus a standard of
attenuation can be built using a WBCO attenuator. It is usually used at 30 MHz
which requires less correction due to skin depth effect. This frequency is also
preferred since it allows for a reasonable waveguide diameter.
The NIST has built a WBCO attenuator with a waveguide diameter of 3.2 in
and it has achieved an attenuation of 10 dB per inch [153]. The accuracy is close
to 0.005 dB per 10 dB increment. A laser interferometer is used to measure its
displacement. The attenuation is traceable to dimension measurement standard.
WBCO attenuators have been made by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL)
in England in 1980s. This type of attenuator has an attenuation step of 0.001 dB
over a range of 120 dB. The guide has a diameter of about 2 in, with an attenuation
rate of 16 dB per inch [153]. Fig. 2.2 shows a photo of the WBCO attenuator at
the NPL [1].
Figure 2.2: A waveguide-below-cutoff (WBCO) standard attenuator at the NPL [1].
19
Rotary Vane Attenuators
A rotary vane attenuator (RVA) has been widely used as a direct reading attenuator
at microwave frequencies [50, 154–158]. Its attenuation can be calculated by
A = 40 log10 (sec θ) + C (dB) (2.17)
where θ is the angle of rotating vane relative to the TE11 mode’s polarization. C
stands for the amount of attenuation when θ = 0. Fabrication errors, angular
misalignment and mechanical components errors can cause the actual attenuation
to deviate from that predicted by the above equation. The deviation is small at
low attenuation values, but can be quite large at high attenuation values. The
deviation is about 0.004 dB for attenuation values below 3 dB.
RVAs are available from 2.6 GHz to 500 GHz. These attenuators, after cross
checking and calibration using an attenuation measurement system, can serve as
reference attenuators. Fig. 2.3 shows a RVA used in our laboratory at the National
Metrology Centre.
Figure 2.3: A 0–60 dB RVA in our laboratory at the National Metrology Centre.
20
Coaxial Step Attenuator
A programmable step attenuator with coaxial connectors offers step attenuation
up to 110 dB in a compact design. It usually contains a few sections, each hav-
ing an attenuation of 1 dB, 2 dB, 4 dB, 10 dB, 20 dB or 40 dB. It has excellent
switching repeatability and life span (greater than 5 million switching cycles per
section). High attenuation accuracy and low reflection coefficient are achieved using
miniature thin-film attenuation cards. Such coaxial step attenuators can serve as
attenuation reference and transfer standards after calibration by a primary atten-
uation measurement system. Fig. 2.4 shows a coaxial reference step attenuator at
0.01–26.5 GHz in our laboratory at the National Metrology Centre. This reference
step attenuator has been formed by cascade-connecting a 0–90 dB step attenuator
to a 0–11 dB step attenuator.

'
)
Figure 2.4: A reference step attenuator used in our laboratory at the National
Metrology Centre.
21
Audio Frequency Voltage Ratio Standards
An inductive voltage divider (IVD) is an autotransformer that has its winding di-
vided into a number of equal-turn sections (usually 10) so that when an alternating
voltage V is applied to the whole winding, the voltage across each section is nom-
inally V /10. The progressive voltages from one end to the section junctions are
thus V /10, 2V /10, 3V /10,..., and 9V /10. Fig. 2.5 shows a 4-decade IVD, where
the input voltage is V and the output voltage is 0.3754 V.

INPUT
OUTPUT
Figure 2.5: A 4-decade inductive voltage divider, where the input voltage is V and
the output voltage is 0.3754 V.
This voltage division can be realized with errors considerably less than 1 part
per million of V , and such units find wide use as standards of LF voltage ratio in
the discipline of electrical measurements [25, 140, 159]. The division of voltage will
be in error if there are differences of resistance and leakage inductance from section
to section, and these errors will be significant if the differences are significant in
relation to the input impedance of the winding. IVDs have been carefully designed
to have almost equal resistance and leakage inductance of the sections and a very
high value of input impedance. Thus, voltage division at low audio frequencies can
be accurate to a few parts in 100 million. IVDs operate most accurately in the
22
frequency range 20−1592 Hz but can be constructed to operate at frequencies up to
1 MHz. Fig. 2.6 shows a programmable seven-decade IVD used in our laboratory
at the National Metrology Centre.
Figure 2.6: A programmable seven-decade IVD in our laboratory at the National
Metrology Centre.
2.1.3 Microwave Attenuation Measurement Systems
Measurement System using Power Ratio Method
Some early microwave attenuation measurement systems developed in the 1960s
to 1970s by the national metrology institutes in the US, UK and Germany are
based on microwave power ratio method. Precision microwave power measurement
using bolometer detector and stabilized signal source are required to measure the
microwave attenuation using microwave power ratio method [51, 54, 127, 129, 138,
140, 160]. Fig. 2.7 shows an attenuation measurement system using power ratio
method.
DUT Power
Detector
Source
Figure 2.7: An attenuation measurement system using power ratio method.
23
The DR of a power-ratio based measurement system is usually 30 dB for direct
measurement. The DR can be extended using indirect measurement method by
comparing the attenuation of the device under test (DUT) with that of a gauge-
block attenuator [138].
Measurement System using Intermediate Frequency Substitution Method
Intermediate frequency (IF) substitution technique has been widely used where a
WBCO standard attenuator is used to compare with the DUT at IF and provide
the reference attenuation values [51, 53, 54, 142]. A mixer is used to convert high
frequency signal to IF (usually at 30 MHz) before comparison with the WBCO
standard.
It is quite costly to setup and maintain a WBCO standard attenuator at 30
MHz. An attenuation measurement system using WBCO-based IF substitution
method is shown in Fig. 2.8. An IF substitution based measurement system is
limited in DR due to the detection technique and is usually costly to maintain due
to the WBCO standard attenuator.
IF (30 MHz)
DUT WBCO Detector
Source
LO
Figure 2.8: An attenuation measurement system using WBCO-based IF substitu-
tion method.
24
Measurement System using Audio Frequency Substitution Method
Audio frequency (AF) substitution method was developed later to make attenua-
tion measurement with higher accuracy [126, 140, 141, 161]. In this technique, the
microwave signal passing through a DUT is converted to AF (1 – 50 kHz) by a
mixer, and the microwave attenuation ratio is obtained by comparing to a voltage
ratio standard at AF. An attenuation measurement system using IVD-based AF
substitution method is shown in Fig. 2.9.
AF (1 - 50 kHz)
DUT IVD Receiver
Source
Reference
(1 - 50 kHz)
LO
Figure 2.9: An attenuation measurement system using IVD-based AF substitution
method.
AF substitution systems have been used by some national standard laboratories
as microwave attenuation measurement standards [121, 131, 147, 162–166]. An IVD
is usually used as a traceable low frequency voltage ratio reference standard for the
microwave attenuation measurement. NPL has developed an AF parallel substitu-
tion based attenuation measurement system at 0.05−18 GHz [126]. An AF series
substitution system was developed for accurate attenuation measurement which
employed a reference channel and null detection method [130–132].
Vector Network Analyzer
The vector network analyzer (VNA) has been developed since 1960s to measure the
microwave transmission and reflection coefficient of a two-port device [89, 90, 167,
168]. A 2-port VNA uses four heterodyne receivers to measure the magnitude and
25
phase of the forward incident reference, reverse incident reference, reflected and
transmitted microwave signals (shown in Fig. 2.10). A directional coupler is used
to collect the reflected microwave signal from the DUT. The four receivers convert
the microwave signals to IF signals which go through down-converters, analog-to-
digital converters and digital processing. Various calibration algorithms, such as
Open-Short-Load and Through-Reflect-Line, have been used to correct the error
terms in VNA transmission and reflection measurement [90, 169, 170].
Source
Splitter DUT Splitter
Forward Reference Measurement Reverse Reference

Measurement
measurement receiver 1 measurement
receiver 2
receiver receiver
Splitter Splitter
Splitter
LO
Figure 2.10: A VNA for measurement of microwave transmission and reflection
coefficient of a two-port device.
26
2.2. Microwave Phase-shift Measurement
Comparison of Microwave Attenuation Measurement Methods
Table 2.1 compares the merits and pitfalls of various methods for microwave at-
tenuation measurement. The VNA is a commercial instrument, with a DR limited
to 70 dB for an expanded uncertainty below 0.3 dB at 26 GHz. The DR of mea-
surement systems using power ratio, IF-substitution or AF-substitution method
is below 100 dB for frequencies up to 18 GHz [126, 127, 129, 132, 138, 140]. It is
necessary to design a new microwave attenuation measurement system with much
lower noise floor so that a DR exceeding 150 dB can be achieved.
Table 2.1: Comparison of Microwave Attenuation Measurement Methods
Measurement method Merits Pitfalls
Power ratio [127, 129] Traceable to a power standard; DR limited to 90 dB at 0.01–18 GHz
lower cost and complexity
IF-substitution [140] Traceable to a WBCO standard High maintenance cost;
DR limited to 100 dB
VNA [167, 168] Lower cost, easier to operate DR limited to 70 dB at 26 GHz
for uncertainties below 0.3 dB
AF substitution [126, 132] Traceable to an IVD, more DR limited to 100 dB at 0.1–18 GHz;
accurate than other methods DR limited to 80 dB at 18–26.5 GHz
2.2 Microwave Phase-shift Measurement
Accurate determination of the microwave phase is very important in microwave en-
gineering. Various phase-shift measurement systems have been developed to make
precision measurement of the microwave phase-shift [55,60,61,121,171]. Microwave
phase-shift standards [57,61,62] have also been built to provide phase-shift reference
values and traceabilities for the calibration of phase measurement instruments.
27
2.2.1 Definition of Phase-shift
The phase-shift of the 2-port network is defined as
θ = arg(s21 ) (2.18)
where s21 is the transmission coefficient of the 2-port network.
Differential Phase-shift
When a 2-port network with scattering parameters s11b , s12b , s22b and s21b is con-
nected between the generator and the load (as shown in Fig. 2.1), the output wave
b2b is given by
b2b s21b
= (2.19)
bG (1 − ΓG s11b )(1 − ΓL s22b ) − ΓG ΓL s12b s21b
When this 2-port network is replaced by another one with scattering parameters
s11e , s12e , s22e and s21e , the output wave b2e is given by
b2e s21e
= (2.20)
bG (1 − ΓG s11e )(1 − ΓL s22e ) − ΓG ΓL s12e s21e
The differential phase-shift between the 2-port networks is

b2e
θd = arg (2.21)
b2b
Using (2.19) and (2.20), we have

s21e · [(1 − ΓG s11b )(1 − ΓL s22b ) − ΓG ΓL s12b s21b ]
θd = arg (2.22)
s21b · [(1 − ΓG s11e )(1 − ΓL s22e ) − ΓG ΓL s12e s21e ]
We can see that
θd = arg(s21e ) − arg(s21b ) (2.23)
when ΓG = ΓL = 0.
28
Insertion Phase-shift
When a 2-port network with scattering parameters s11 , s12 , s22 and s21 is inserted
between the generator and the load (as shown in Fig. 2.1), its insertion phase-
shift can be measured. The insertion phase-shift is a special case of the differential
phase-shift, where the initial 2-port network is lossless, non-reflecting and has zero
characteristic phase-shift (these conditions are s11b = s22b = 0 and s21b = s12b = 1).
Thus the insertion phase-shift is

s21 · (1 − ΓG ΓL )
θI = arg (2.24)
(1 − ΓG s11 )(1 − ΓL s22 ) − ΓG ΓL s12 s21
Notice that
θI = arg(s21 ) (2.25)
when ΓG = ΓL = 0.
2.2.2 Phase-shift Reference Standards
A section of uniform transmission line can be used as a phase-shift standard [62–
64, 172, 173]. The phase difference between the two ports of the transmission line
is proportional to the length of the section:
θ = βl (2.26)
where β is the propagation constant of the transmission line, and l is the length of
the section. The l can be measured accurately with a laser interferometer.
Air-filled coaxial lines have been used as phase-shift reference standards in many
metrology laboratories. The phase-shift of an air line can be predicted with correc-
tion of its insertion loss factor [63, 64, 68, 69, 173–176]. Fig. 2.11 shows a beadless
air line used in our laboratory at the National Metrology Centre.
29
Figure 2.11: A beadless air line in our laboratory at the National Metrology Centre.
2.2.3 Microwave Phase-shift Measurement Systems
Dual-channel phase-shift measurement systems with an accuracy of 0.1–0.3 degrees
at 9 GHz have been described in [55, 60, 61], where the phase-shift of a DUT is
measured by comparing to that of a microwave phase-shift standard. Accurate
measurement of phase-shift has also been made using a 30 MHz dual-channel RF
null system with a phase-shift standard, which provides phase-shift reference values
[177]. Expanded measurement uncertainties of 0.2–5 degrees have been reported
for a variable phase-shifter at 30 MHz using this system.
In another type of measurement system, the phase-shift of a DUT is measured
by an IF phase angle meter after the microwave signal is down-converted to IF [61,
171, 178]. Expanded measurement uncertainties of 1–3 degrees have been achieved
using such systems for devices with low attenuation.
A dual-channel heterodyne phase sensitive detection technique has been used
to measure transmission phase-shift at 0.5–100 MHz for a DUT (with variable
attenuations up to 140 dB), with an accuracy of 0.1 degrees at 60 MHz [121, 179].
Currently, microwave transmission phase-shift is generally measured by a VNA
[89, 167] with an uncertainty of 0.2–7 degrees for a device with attenuation up to
80 dB at 18 GHz [133]. The uncertainty in transmission phase-shift measurement
30
by a VNA could reach 19 degrees at 18 GHz if the device attenuation is 100 dB.
The increase in transmission phase measurement uncertainty is mainly due to the
increased phase noise level at higher frequency and the decreased signal-to-noise
ratio as the DUT attenuation increases.
Table 2.2 compares the merits and pitfalls of various methods for microwave
phase-shift measurement. To achieve a phase measurement accuracy of 0.1◦ –0.4◦
at 0.1–18 GHz for a device with 140 dB attenuation, a new measurement system
need to be developed. Such a measurement system will be able to serve as the
primary standard for microwave phase-shift measurement and provide traceability
for other instruments.
Table 2.2: Comparison of Microwave Phase-shift Measurement Methods
Phase-shift standard based [55, 60, 177] Traceable to phase-shift standard Need several phase-shift standards
to cover wide frequency range
IF phase meter based [61, 171, 178] Have broad frequency coverage IF phase meter error is high (0.5◦ –3◦ )
Dual-channel RF phase-shift Uncertainties are 0.1◦ for DUT For low frequency only (below 100 MHz)
measurement system [121, 179] with attenuation up to 140 dB
Vector Network Analyzer [133, 167] Wide frequency range, lower cost Uncertainties reach 19◦ for devices
with attenuation of 100 dB at 18 GHz
31
2.3. Millimeter-wave Technology and Metrology
2.3 Millimeter-wave Technology and Metrology
2.3.1 Millimeter-wave Technology
Millimeter-wave and sub-millimeter wave are increasingly being used in broadband
communications, radar, remote sensing, security imaging, medical imaging and
non-destructive testing [37,93,94,96,97,106–108,112,180–193]. Wireless communi-
cations systems with high data rate have been developed at 60 GHz, 120 GHz and
300 GHz [103, 104, 106, 107]. Automotive high-resolution radars have been devel-
oped at 77 GHz, 94 GHz and 140 GHz [37,96,105]. Imaging radars at 94 GHz, 220
GHz and 350 GHz have been reported [108,189,194]. Sub-millimeter wave imaging
systems at 500 GHz can produce high-resolution images [109]. Submillimeter-wave
monolithic integrated circuits and modules at 300–500 GHz have been developed
for use in high-speed electronics systems [195]. Correspondingly there is a growing
demand for accurate measurement at millimeter-wave frequencies, which is critical
for component and system development [93, 95, 181, 196–198].
Electronics sources can generate continuous wave (CW) output power of 3.5 mW
at 300 GHz and 100 µW at 1.2 THz [199, 200]. The first THz quantum cascade
laser (QCL) developed in 2001 can generate CW power of 2 mW at 4.4 THz [201].
QCLs operating at frequencies in the range from 0.84 THz to 5 THz have been
developed since 2001 [202].
The attenuation through air-filled metal waveguide at millimeter-wave frequen-
cies is much higher than that at microwave frequencies. On-chip metal-pipe rect-
angular waveguide is being developed using micromachining and multilayer tech-
nologies [203, 204]. These technologies reduce the transmission loss between the
components and significantly improve the performance of millimeter-wave and sub-
32
millimeter wave integrated circuits.
Millimeter-wave transmission loss through free space is high due to water vapor
absorption. The output power of CW millimeter-wave sources is also quite low
currently. Thus highly sensitive receivers are required to measure low level signals
in millimeter-wave systems. High DR measurement at millimeter-wave frequencies
is also required for imaging and radar systems [38, 98].
Millimeter-wave power in waveguide from 75 GHz to 1 THz can be measured
by a waveguide calorimeter [205], which is traceable to DC power standard. The
measurement accuracy is about 10–20% for millimeter-wave power of 0.5 microwatt
[205, 206]. The power measurement range of a calorimeter is limited by the sensor
drift and noise level. For millimeter-wave power below 1 microwatt, more accurate
measurement can be made using a heterodyne receiver with lower noise floor. A
millimeter-wave attenuation reference standard from 0 to 60 dB can be used to
provide linearity reference value for low-level power measurement made by a het-
erodyne receiver. Thus traceable millimeter-wave power measurement can be made
in a wide dynamic range.
NIST is developing a sub-millimeter wave radiometer at 500–1600 GHz for trace-
able noise-temperature measurements [207]. A millimeter-wave and sub-millimeter
wave noise standard is required to characterize the noise level in imaging and spec-
troscopy systems. A calibrated RVA in millimeter-wave and sub-millimeter wave
band can be used in a radiometer to provide linearity traceability for various noise
levels.
33
2.3.2 Millimeter-wave Attenuation Measurement
Various millimetre-wave attenuation measurement systems have been developed
since the 1960s [36,117,122,123,166,208–214]. A single-channel IF substitution at-
tenuation measurement system at 33–117 GHz was proposed in [211]. A calibrated
IF attenuator was used as the reference attenuation standard. The systematic error
and random error are ±0.3 dB and ±0.1 dB, respectively, for measurement of 50
dB attenuation at 75–117 GHz using this system. A single-channel RF substitu-
tion attenuation measurement system at 33–110 GHz was proposed in [210], which
used a video detector to reduce the system cost. A calibrated RVA was used as
the reference attenuation standard at millimetre-wave frequencies. The DR of the
system is about 97 dB with an averaging of 1.7 minutes to reduce the noise floor.
In [36], the minimum detectable signal power using a single-channel heterodyne
receiver is about −112 dBm at 140 GHz, and the attenuation measurement DR can
reach 142 dB if a backward wave oscillator (BWO) with output power of 1 watt
is used as the transmitter. However, a BWO is quite bulky and the phase noise
of a BWO is quite high which leads to high receiver noise floor. An attenuation
measurement system using single-channel harmonic mixing heterodyne receiver was
developed in [209]. The DR of this system is 61 dB at 210 GHz, 32 dB at 350 GHz
and 29 dB at 420 GHz. These two systems did not use any attenuation standard
to provide traceable measurement of millimetre-wave attenuation.
Frequency extension modules have been developed as commercial products to
extend the frequency coverage of a microwave VNA to cover 50–1100 GHz. These
modules use frequency multipliers to generate CW signals at 50–1100 GHz in vari-
ous waveguide bands from WR–15 to WR–1.0. And subharmonic mixers are used to
down-convert the millimeter-wave signal to microwave signal for further processing
34
by the VNA [95, 122–124, 198, 213–216]. A dual-channel heterodyne measurement
system is used in a VNA for attenuation measurement. A main channel receiver
is used for attenuation measurement and a reference channel receiver is used to
provide a reference IF signal for VNA calibration and synchronous detection. The
reference IF signal is used to phase-lock the LO in two vector receivers, which
down-convert the main and reference IF signals to a lower frequency for coherent
detection [168]. A VNA has been used to measure a 30 dB attenuator with an
expanded uncertainty of 0.33 dB at 110 GHz, 0.23 dB at 220 GHz and 0.78 dB at
330 GHz, respectively [122–124]. The VNA extender from Virginia Diodes (VDI)
has a typical attenuation measurement DR of 100 dB at 330–500 GHz [217].
A millimeter-wave network analyzer has also been developed by AB Millimeter
(ABmm) for attenuation measurement at 8–1000 GHz [134]. The ABmm network
analyzer has achieved a DR of 105 dB at ∼200 GHz and 104 dB at ∼500 GHz [134].
A single-channel heterodyne measurement system is used in an ABmm network
analyzer for attenuation measurement. In the ABmm network analyzer, the phase
of the IF signal is stabilized by phase-controlling the microwave source and the LO
which drives the harmonics generator and harmonics mixer, respectively [218].
However, the phase-lock loop used in the VNA or ABmm network analyzer has
some residual random phase error, which leads to random deviations between the
instantaneous frequency of the IF signal and the LO in the vector receiver. Such
random deviations increase the noise floor in the synchronous detection, which
restricts the DR in attenuation measurement.
has been developed at the National Metrology Institute of Japan [117]. The ex-
panded uncertainty of the system is found to be 0.004–0.13 dB corresponding to a
measured attenuation range up to 80 dB. Such an attenuation standard can help
35
to provide traceability for measurement made at 60 GHz, which is very useful for
wireless communications.
Table 2.3: Comparison of Millimeter-wave Attenuation Measurement Methods
Single-channel IF substitution [211] Traceable to IF attenuation standard DR limited to 50 dB
Single-channel RF substitution [210] Traceable to RF attenuation standard DR limited to 97 dB
Single-channel heterodyne receiver [36] High DR (142 dB) Need bulky BWO with
high phase noise level
Single-channel harmonic mixing Frequency range cover up to 420 GHz DR limited to 29 dB
heterodyne receiver [209] at 420 GHz
Single-channel network analyzer [134] Wide frequency range DR limited to 104 dB
at 500 GHz
Dual-channel VNA [122–124] Wide frequency range, easy to use DR limited to 100 dB
at 500 GHz, higher cost
Single-channel IVD based system [117] Traceable to IVD standard DR limited to 80 dB
at 50–75 GHz
Table 2.3 compares the merit and pitfalls of various methods for millimeter-wave
attenuation measurement. New techniques need to be developed to improve the
measurement DR to a level beyond 150 dB. A dedicated attenuation measurement
system at millimeter-wave frequencies is needed to provide precision attenuation
measurement with high DR. A RVA calibrated by such a dedicated millimeter-wave
attenuation measurement system can serve as an attenuation reference standard
to provide traceability in linearity for millimeter-wave waveguide power meters,
spectrum analyzers, VNA and radiometers.
36
2.3.3 Millimeter-wave Phase-shift Measurement
A 70 GHz phase-shift measuring system has been developed for plasma diagno-
sis [219]. This system used a single-channel homodyne receiver to derive the
millimeter-wave phase-shift through a phase-comparator at 2 MHz. A beadless
coaxial air line can be used as millimetre-wave phase-shift reference standard for
frequencies up to 65 GHz [63, 69, 125].
A millimeter-wave network analyzer [134] or a dual-channel VNA [122] can be
used to measure phase-shift at 50–1000 GHz. The expanded uncertainty of trans-
mission phase-shift measurement for a 20 dB attenuator is estimated to be 0.86◦
at 110–170 GHz using a VNA [122]. The transmission phase-shift measurement
uncertainty for a 2-port DUT measured by a VNA is obtained using

−1 U (|s21 |)
U (θ) = sin (2.27)
|s21 |
where θ is the transmission phase-shift of the DUT, |s21 | is the attenuation of
the DUT in linear scale and U (|s21 |) is the expanded measurement uncertainty of
|s21 | [122, 220].
The expanded uncertainty of attenuation measurement for a 30 dB attenuator
is estimated to be 0.78 dB at 220–325 GHz [124]. Thus the expanded uncertainty
of transmission phase-shift measurement for a 30 dB attenuator is estimated to
be 5.39◦ at 220–325 GHz using (2.27). The phase-shift measurement uncertainty
using millimeter-wave network analyzer [134] or a dual-channel VNA [122] is too
high for a DUT with attenuation beyond 30 dB.
Table 2.4 compares the merit and pitfalls of various methods for millimeter-
wave phase-shift measurement. New phase-shift measurement technique is needed
to measure the phase-shift of high attenuation DUT with good accuracy.
37
Table 2.4: Comparison of Millimeter-wave Phase-shift Measurement Methods
Single-channel homodyne receiver [219] Lower cost Limited DR, not suitable
for high attenuation DUT
Single-channel network analyzer [134] Wide frequency range, Uncertainties too high for DUT
lower cost attenuation beyond 30 dB
Dual-channel VNA [122–124] Wide frequency range, Uncertainties too high for DUT
easy to use attenuation beyond 30 dB,
higher cost
A dedicated millimeter-wave phase-shift reference standard and measurement
system is required to provide traceable phase-shift reference values with high accu-
racy. A variable phase changer or a waveguide shim calibrated by a millimeter-wave
phase-shift precision measurement system can serve as a phase-shift reference stan-
dard to provide traceability for VNA and phase measurement made by millimeter-
wave imaging and spectroscopy systems.
38
Chapter 3
Precision Measurement of
Microwave Attenuation
3.1 Introduction
A variable attenuator calibrated by a dedicated attenuation measurement system
can serve as an attenuation reference standard and provide traceability in linearity
for microwave power meters, spectrum analyzers and network analyzers [115, 221].
Voltage-ratio based and power-ratio based attenuation measurement systems have
been developed by many national standards laboratories since 1960s to make very
accurate measurement of variable attenuators [52,126,138,150,161,177]. Many new
dedicated attenuation measurement systems have been developed in the past two
decades to cover higher frequencies [116, 121, 127, 129–132, 145, 147, 160, 162, 163,
165, 166].
A power-ratio based measurement system has been developed at the Physikalisch-
Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) to measure attenuation up to 100 dB with a total
uncertainty of 0.017 dB at 100 dB range (up to 18 GHz) [138]. A power-ratio based
39
3.1. Introduction
attenuation measurement standard was developed at the Korean Research Institute
of Standards and Science with a DR of 90 dB from 10 MHz to 18 GHz and 80 dB
from 18 to 26.5 GHz, respectively [127, 129, 160].
Commercial VNA has been used in some national standards laboratories as at-
tenuation measurement systems [222]. The attenuation measurement uncertainty
of a VNA is much higher than that of a dedicated attenuation measurement system.
The expanded attenuation measurement uncertainty for a 70 dB attenuator at 26
GHz using a VNA is around 0.3 dB. At 26 GHz, the direct receiver access input
noise floor of a commercial VNA is around −125 dBm at 10 Hz intermediate fre-
quency bandwidth and its DR is around 125 dB with 0.45 dB receiver compression
error [223, 224]. The leakage error in VNA also limits its attenuation measurement
dynamic range [225].
A WBCO based attenuation calibration system was developed at the National
Bureau of Standards (NBS, now called NIST) to measure attenuation up to 150 dB
at 30 MHz with an uncertainty of 0.079 dB at the 150 dB range [150, 177]. At the
NPL, a measurement DR of 150 dB from 0.5 MHz to 100 MHz was achieved using
a dual-channel voltage-ratio based attenuation measurement system [121], which
has a total measurement uncertainty of 0.01 dB for the measurement of 130 dB
attenuation. These two systems only cover lower frequency range which is below
100 MHz. A voltage-ratio based attenuation measurement standard has also been
developed at NPL with a DR of 100 dB at 0.1–18 GHz [126]. This system did not
cover the range from 18 GHz to 26.5 GHz.
An IVD-based dual-channel attenuation measurement system developed by the
National Metrology Institute of Japan has a DR of 80 dB at 18–26.5 GHz [116].
This system used an AF reference channel to provide a frequency reference for the
LIA. The main channel AF signal and the reference AF signal go into the A and B
40
3.1. Introduction
input of the LIA respectively (differential mode) so that a nulling can be detected.
The AF reference goes through a phase-shifter module and an attenuator so that
its amplitude and phase can be adjusted before it enters the LIA. When the DUT
attenuation changes, an IVD in the main channel and the phase-shifter module in
the reference channel are adjusted respectively so that the nulling at the LIA can
be maintained. The phase-shifter module in [116] consists of an AF phase shifter,
a saturation amplifier and a bandpass filter [116, 130]. The saturation amplifier is
used to minimize the amplitude change in the output signal of the AF phase shifter
and the bandpass filter produces the fundamental mode of the saturated signal.
However, the phase noise in the AF reference signal is changed by the amplifier
and the bandpass filter, which causes more deviations between the instantaneous
frequency of the main channel AF signal and the reference AF signal at the LIA
input. This would lead to more fluctuations in the LIA reading and increased noise
floor in the system proposed in [116].
In this chapter, novel measurement techniques are presented for accurate mea-
surement of attenuation at 0.05–26.5 GHz. A dual-channel IVD based system is
proposed for attenuation measurement at 2–26.5 GHz. Our proposed design did
not use the AF reference signal for nulling detection. We ensure that the phase
noise of AF reference signal is the same as that of the main channel AF signal, so
that there is negligible deviations between the instantaneous frequency of the main
channel AF signal and the reference AF signal at the LIA input. Thus the receiver
noise floor can be reduced and the measurement DR can be increased by 30 dB at
18–26 GHz. A single-channel system is proposed for attenuation measurement from
50 MHz to 2 GHz due to its simpler design and good accuracy. We have compared
the performance of single-channel and dual-channel systems to reveal the measure-
ment errors due to receiver fluctuation and leakage, which has not been reported
41
3.2. Single-channel AF Substitution Attenuation Measurement
in previous literature. The measurement uncertainty of the proposed systems is
analyzed. It is shown that a measurement DR of 110 dB has been achieved.
3.2 Single-channel AF Substitution Attenuation
Measurement
A single-channel AF substitution microwave attenuation measurement system at
0.05–26.5 GHz is shown in Fig. 3.1. In this system, the microwave signal is con-
verted to a 5.02 kHz AF signal. One mixer is used to cover 50 MHz to 2 GHz
and another mixer is used to cover 2–26.5 GHz. The additional 20 Hz shift away
from 5 kHz is to minimize the interference from the power line (50 Hz) harmonics.
The AF signal goes through a LC low pass filter, pre-amplifier, IVD and enters
the input of a lock-in amplifier (LIA) [226, 227]. A function generator is used to
provide a 5.02 kHz sinusoidal signal as the external frequency reference signal for
the LIA. This reference is used by the LIA to recover the AF signal. A 10 MHz
frequency reference signal synchronizes the frequency of the RF source and the
function generator.
Two RF isolators are placed before and after the matching tuner to reduce the
reflection from the RF source and the mixer RF input respectively. The isolators
are available in the following bands: 50–70 MHz, 80–140 MHz, 150–225 MHz, 225–
400 MHz, 400–500 MHz, 500–1000 MHz, 1–2 GHz, 2–4 GHz, 4–8 GHz, 8–12 GHz,
12–18 GHz and 18–26.5 GHz. To reduce the mismatch uncertainty [228], manual
tuners (for 800 MHz – 26.5 GHz) or matching pads (for 50 – 800 MHz) are used to
provide good test port impedance match. The tuners and the isolators connected
to the two sides of DUT have also been placed in two separate shield boxes to
42
Gauge Block
Attenuator
RF Source (inserted when using
indirect attenuation
(50 MHz – 26.5 GHz) measurement) AF (5.02 kHz)
Port 1 Port 2
RF
Impedance Impedance LP Filter
Tuner or Tuner or
Pad Pad
Isolator LO
Level Set Attenuator Isolator
(inserted when using Pre-Amp
direct attenuation
measurement) DUT
BP Filter
IVD
LO Source
(50 MHz – 26.5 GHz)
10 MHz Lock-in
Reference Amp
Ref
Function Reference (5.02 kHz)
Generator
Figure 3.1: Block diagram of a single-channel AF substitution microwave attenu-
ation measurement system (50 MHz – 26.5 GHz). The frequency reference signal
of the lock-in amplifier is provided by a function generator.
reduce RF radiation leakage.
Direct Measurement
The DUT is usually a step attenuator. When a DUT is set to its datum position
(0 dB range), the IVD ratio is set to D1 and the LIA detects an AF signal with
magnitude of V1 . After the DUT is set to a particular attenuation range, the IVD
ratio is adjusted via a computer program so that the LIA detects a signal with
magnitude of V2 = V1 at an IVD ratio D2 . The incremental attenuation of the
DUT can be derived from the IVD ratio using
D2
A = 20 log10 ( ) (dB). (3.1)
D1
The IVD is used as a traceable voltage ratio reference standard with an accuracy
of a few parts in 106 at 5.02 kHz [25, 140].
43
To avoid mixer compression and nonlinearity error when measuring attenuation
below 30 dB, a 30 dB level-set attenuator (LSA) is inserted before the DUT.
Indirect Measurement
For measurement of a DUT with attenuation higher than 30 dB, the LSA (30 dB) is
replaced by a gauge block attenuator (GBA) which is a calibrated step attenuator.
For measurement of DUT attenuation from 30 to 60 dB, the GBA is first set to
30 dB when DUT setting is 0 dB, and then changed to 0 dB when DUT is set to
a value higher than 30 dB. The difference between the incremental attenuation of
the DUT and the GBA is measured in this process to be
δA,1 = Adut − AGB,30dB , (3.2)
and the DUT incremental attenuation can be derived as
Adut = δA,1 + AGB,30dB (dB), (3.3)
where AGB,30dB is the calibrated incremental attenuation of the GBA from its
datum position to 30 dB setting. This is called indirect attenuation measurement
[147]. Similarly, for measurement of DUT attenuation from 60 to 110 dB, a 60 dB
GBA is used and Adut is obtained as
Adut = δA,2 + AGB,60dB (dB) , (3.4)
where δA,2 is the measured difference between the incremental attenuation of the
DUT and the 60 dB GBA. AGB,60dB are the calibrated incremental attenuation of
the GBA from its datum position to the 60 dB setting.
44
3.3. Dual-channel AF Substitution Attenuation Measurement
Measurement Error due to Phase Noise
The LIA relies on the frequency information provided by the external reference
signal to recover a weak signal accurately. Due to the phase noise of RF and LO
sources, the AF signal generated by the mixer has a random frequency fluctuation
which increases as the frequency of the microwave signal becomes higher than 2
GHz. Since the reference signal produced by the AF function generator does not
have the same frequency fluctuation, the voltage reading at LIA becomes less stable
as the frequency of the microwave signal increases. This causes larger uncertainty
in attenuation measurement using a single-channel system at frequencies beyond 2
GHz.
3.3 Dual-channel AF Substitution Attenuation
Measurement
A dual-channel microwave attenuation measurement system has been proposed to
improve the measurement accuracy at higher frequencies. Its block diagram is
shown in Fig. 3.2. A reference channel is introduced in this system to improve
the receiver sensitivity. The signal from the RF source is split via a directional
coupler. The main line signal goes into the main mixer input (signal channel) and
the coupled signal goes into the reference mixer input (reference channel), which is
used to provide a reference signal at 5.02 kHz for the LIA. The bandwidth of the
band-pass filter in the reference channel is set to 20 Hz. The LO signal is also split
via a directional coupler to provide LO drive signals for both mixers. The dual-
channel system can be used for attenuation measurement from 50 MHz to 26.5 GHz.
Two mixers are used to cover 50 MHz to 2 GHz and two mixers are used to cover 2–
45
3.3. Dual-channel AF Substitution Attenuation Measurement
26.5 GHz. The directional couplers used in the system are in the following bands:
50–500 MHz, 0.5–1 GHz, 1–18 GHz and 18–26.5 GHz. With the introduction
of the reference channel in the dual-channel system, the voltage reading at LIA
becomes much more stable for microwave signal at frequencies beyond 2 GHz.
This significantly reduces the uncertainty in attenuation measurement.
Gauge Block
Attenuator
(inserted when using
indirect attenuation Main
RF Source
measurement)
(50 MHz ~ 26.5 GHz ) Isolator Mixer AF (5.02 kHz)
Isolator
Impedance Impedance RF
Tuner or Tuner or LP Filter
Pad Pad
LO
Level Set Attenuator Port 1 Port 2
(inserted when using
Pre-Amp
Attenuator
direct attenuation
(60 dB) measurement) DUT
Ref BP Filter
Mixer RF
LO
IVD
Isolators in
multiple bands LO Source
(50 MHz ~ 26.5 GHz)
Lock-in
10 MHz
Amp
Reference
AF (5.02 kHz)
LP Filter Pre-Amp BP Filter Reference (5.02 kHz)
Figure 3.2: Block diagram of a dual-channel microwave attenuation measurement
system (50 MHz – 26.5 GHz). The frequency reference signal of the lock-in amplifier
is provided by a reference channel.
There is an internal leakage path going through the reference mixer (from RF
to LO port), isolators, coupler and enters the main mixer RF port (from LO to
RF port). For large attenuation measurement, the leakage path attenuation must
be 80 dB below signal attenuation to keep the measurement error below 0.001
dB. Ferrite RF isolators (reverse isolation nearly 145 dB) are inserted between
reference mixer LO port and the directional coupler to provide sufficient leakage
attenuation. These isolators have been placed inside several shield boxes to reduce
their RF radiation leakage. Due to the bandwidth limitation of the isolators, 12
46
3.4. Measurement Uncertainty Analysis
bands have been implemented for the isolation path.
The AF output of the reference mixer shares the same frequency fluctuation of
the signal channel AF signal since it is due to the phase noise of the RF source and
LO source. This is very important for weak signal recovery and coherent detection.
With the introduction of the reference channel, the voltage reading of the LIA
becomes much more stable for microwave signal at frequencies higher than 2 GHz.
This significantly reduces the uncertainty in attenuation measurement.
3.4 Measurement Uncertainty Analysis
3.4.1 IVD Error
A seven decade IVD is used as the voltage ratio reference standard. The maximum
error in attenuation due to the IVD ratio error is

(D2 + γ2 )D1 (D1 + γ1 )D2
eIV D = max 20 log10 , 20 log10 (dB) (3.5)
(D1 − γ1 )D2 (D2 − γ2 )D1
where γ1 and γ2 are the IVD ratio maximum absolute error when IVD is set to D1
and D2 , respectively. The error is assumed to have a rectangular distribution in
[−eIV D , eIV D ]. The standard uncertainty (coverage factor k=1 ) [135] due to the
IVD error is estimated by

eIV D
uIV D = √ (3.6)
3
uIV D is estimated to be 0.0004 dB, 0.0008 dB and 0.002 dB for measurement of
attenuation in 0–90 dB, 90–100 dB and 100–110 dB, respectively.
The IVD is used between the pre-amplifier and the LIA. Thus the pre-amplifier
acts as the source of the IVD. The LIA acts as the load of the IVD. The loading
effect has been analyzed. The error limit due to the IVD loading effect is estimated
47
to be 0.00004 dB, which is negligible in the attenuation measurement uncertainty
estimation.
3.4.2 Mismatch Uncertainty
Mismatch error is a dominant uncertainty factor in low attenuation measurement
[228]. The error in incremental attenuation measurement due to mismatch is found
to have a U-shaped distribution and its standard uncertainty can be estimated from,
h
uM = 6.143 × |ΓG |2 (|s11b |2 + |s11e |2 ) + |ΓL |2 (|s22b |2 + |s22e |2 )
i1
2 2 4 4 2
+ |ΓG | |ΓL | (|s21b | + |s21e | ) (3.7)
where ΓG and ΓL are the test port reflection coefficients, s11b and s11e are the
reflection coefficients of the DUT’s port 1 before and after the DUT attenuation
switching [228]. Similarly, s22b and s22e are the reflection coefficients of the DUT’s
port 2, s21b and s21e are the transmission coefficients before and after the DUT at-
tenuation switching. Mismatch uncertainty is the dominant uncertainty component
for low attenuation measurement from 0.01 dB to 30 dB.
From 800 MHz to 26.5 GHz, impedance matching tuners can be used to reduce
the test port reflection coefficient. A VNA is used to monitor the tuning so as to
achieve a reflection coefficient magnitude below 0.003.
Below 800 MHz, two 10 dB attenuators are used as the matching pads at test
ports for measurement of attenuation ranging from 0 dB to 60 dB. For measure-
ment of high attenuation from 60 dB to 110 dB, two 6 dB attenuators are used as
matching pads so that the signal-to-noise ratio is sufficient for accurate measure-
ment.
48
3.4.3 Receiver Nonlinearity Error
The mixer and pre-amplifier nonlinearity is an important uncertainty factor in AF
substitution microwave attenuation measurement standards [140, 164, 229]. The
signal level at the mixer RF input is kept at least 30 dB below the LO level to
achieve the smallest nonlinearity error. For measurement of attenuation below 30
dB, a 30 dB attenuator is placed before the DUT to ensure the mixer is operating
in its linear region.
We have studied the receiver nonlinearity by repeatedly measuring a 0–10 dB
step attenuator at decreasing initial mixer input levels ( −25 dBm, −35 dBm,...,
−85 dBm ) at 5 GHz. The mean value of four measurements taken at initial mixer
input levels from −25 dBm to −55 dBm is used as the reference attenuation value
of the 0–10 dB attenuator (Aref = 9.9814 dB). For initial mixer input levels from
−25 dBm to −65 dBm, the deviations of the measurements from the reference
attenuation value Aref are taken as the nonlinearity error (shown in Table 3.1).
The repeatability for the measurement at each mixer input level is obtained by
√
dividing its standard deviation by n, where n is the number of measurements for
each mixer input level (n = 4). The maximum nonlinearity error for the initial
mixer input levels from −25 dBm to −65 dBm is about eln = 0.001 dB. The
increased deviations for initial mixer input levels at −75 dBm and −85 dBm are
due to the noise effect.
The error due to receiver nonlinearity is assumed to have a rectangular dis-
tribution in [−eln , eln ], and the standard uncertainty due to nonlinearity error is
estimated to be
eln
uln = √ = 0.0006 dB. (3.8)
3
49
Table 3.1: A check of receiver nonlinearity by repeated measurement of a 0–10 dB
step attenuator at decreasing mixer RF input levels at 5 GHz.
DUT Nominal Mean Measured Deviation from

Mixer Input Level Repeatability Reference
Attenuation Step Incremental Reference Value
(dBm) (dB) Value (dB)
(dB) Attenuation (dB) (dB)
002 0.0005 -25 ~ -35 0-10 9.9812 0.0005 9.9814 -0.0002
004 0.0003 -35 ~ -45 0-10 9.9810 0.0003 9.9814 -0.0004
004 0.0003 -45 ~ -55 0-10 9.9818 0.0003 9.9814 0.0004
003 0.0005 -55 ~ -65 0-10 9.9817 0.0005 9.9814 0.0003
010 0.0004 -65 ~ -75 0-10 9.9825 0.0004 9.9814 0.0010
015 0.0007 -75 ~ -85 0-10 9.9830 0.0007 9.9814 0.0015
040 0.0011 -85 ~ -95 0-10 9.9854 0.0011 9.9814 0.0040
3.4.4 Receiver Fluctuation and Noise
The detected signal by the LIA has small fluctuation in amplitude during mea-
surement. Such fluctuation will lead to some uncertainty in the attenuation mea-
surement since the IVD ratio setting is determined by the LIA voltage reading.
As the microwave frequency increases, the fluctuation in the single-channel system
increases due to the phase noise effect.
The dual-channel system uses a coherent frequency reference for the LIA and
has very small receiver fluctuation for low attenuation measurement up to 26.5
GHz. Compared to the single-channel system, the error due to receiver fluctuation
in the dual-channel system decreases by 50 times at 26.5 GHz.
For high attenuation measurement, receiver fluctuation is mainly due to the noise
in the mixer, pre-amplifier and the LIA. For 90 – 110 dB attenuation measurements,
25 readings of LIA measurement taken within 25 seconds (one sample per second)
are averaged to reduce the random noise effect.
Let D1 and D2 denotes the IVD ratio before and after the DUT attenuation is
changed, and δ1 and δ2 represents the maximum absolute error in the IVD ratio
D1 and D2 due to the receiver fluctuation and noise, respectively. The maximum
50
error in attenuation due to the fluctuation and noise is

(D2 + δ2 )D1 (D1 + δ1 )D2
en = max 20 log10 , 20 log10 (dB) (3.9)
(D1 − δ1 )D2 (D2 − δ2 )D1
The error due to fluctuation and noise is assumed to have a rectangular distribution
in [−en , en ]. The standard uncertainty due to receiver fluctuation and noise can
be estimated by
en
uN = √ (3.10)
3
3.4.5 RF Leakage Error
RF leakage is a dominating uncertainty component for measurement of attenuation
above 80 dB [140]. The resultant signal amplitude at the LIA due to the paths
through the DUT and the leakage path is given by

q
x= x2A + x2L + 2xA xL cos φ , (3.11)
where xA and xL are the magnitudes of the signals at the LIA via the DUT and the
leakage paths, respectively, with a phase difference φ between them. The value of
φ is unknown and depends upon the path differences. The maximum measurement
error due to leakage is given by
eL = −20 log10 1 − 10−(AL −Adut )/20 (dB),

(3.12)
where Adut and AL are the attenuations through the DUT and leakage paths re-
spectively [140], and

xA
AL − Adut = 20 log10 (dB). (3.13)
xL
To keep the eL to be smaller than 0.001 dB, the leakage path signal xL has to be
at least 80 dB below the wanted signal xA , i.e., AL − Adut ≥ 80 dB.
51
External Leakage
There is an external leakage effect caused by radiated signals from the isolators,
slide screw tuners, coaxial cables, and coaxial connectors. These radiated signals
might enter the attenuation measurement receiver and introduce an error in atten-
uation measurement. Coaxial RF connectors have been wrapped using aluminum
foil tapes and semi-rigid cables with high shielding effectiveness are used to reduce
the radiation leakage effect. The slide screw tuners and the RF isolators connected
to the two ports of DUT have been placed in two separate shield boxes to reduce
their RF radiation. The main measurement receiver and reference receiver are also
placed in two separate shield boxes to minimize the RF leakage error.
Internal Leakage
In a dual-channel system, there is an internal RF leakage path going through the
reference mixer, isolator, directional coupler and enters the signal mixer RF port.
RF isolators are used in the path between LO port of two mixers to reduce such
leakage. A 60 dB attenuator is also placed before the reference mixer RF input
to reduce the internal leakage. Directional couplers with high directivity are used
to provide ∼40 dB isolation between the two channels. The isolation between the
mixer RF port and the LO port is about 30 dB. The total isolation on the internal
leakage path is estimated to be ∼334 dB if four isolators (each with ∼36 dB reverse
isolation) are placed between LO ports of two mixers.
We have checked the level of leakage signal in the measurement receiver by
inserting several cascade-connected attenuators with total attenuation of ∼370 dB
between the test ports of the dual-channel system at 26 GHz. The receiver noise
52
floor can be modeled as
nf (t)ejθf (t) = nt (t)ejθt (t) + xL (t)ejθL (t) , (3.14)
where nf (t) and θf (t) are the magnitude and phase of the noise floor in LIA, nt (t)
and θt (t) are the magnitude and phase of the random noise, and xL (t) and θL (t)
are the magnitude and phase of the residual leakage signal, respectively.
Fig. 3.3 shows the magnitude and phase of the measured signal at receiver. If
there is any significant leakage signal in the noise floor detected by LIA, it would
be expected to see a relatively stable phase in the data collected in 120 seconds.
However, the phase of the measured signal changes randomly between −180◦ and
180◦ , which suggests that the measured signal is actually the random noise. The
magnitude of the leakage signal must be much smaller than that of the random
noise. The measured signal is mainly due to the thermal noise in the receiver.
53
Magnitude (microvolt)
1.5
0.5
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
time (sec)
200
150
100
Phase (deg)
50
−50
−100
−150
−200
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
time (sec)
Figure 3.3: The magnitude and phase of the signal detected by LIA with ∼370
dB attenuation inserted between test ports in the dual-channel receiver at 26 GHz,
data collected in 120 seconds (one sample per second).
3.4.6 GBA Uncertainty
Calibration of an attenuator in the range 30 dB to 60 dB and 60 dB to 110 dB is
derived by comparing the high attenuation to a 30 dB and 60 dB GBA, respectively,
and
Adut = δA + AGB (dB), (3.15)
54
where AGB is the calibrated incremental attenuation of the GBA and δA is the
attenuation difference between the DUT and the GBA. The GBA has been cali-
brated previously. Thus the uncertainty for the indirect attenuation measurement
must include the 30 dB or 60 dB GBA calibration uncertainty (uGB ).
3.4.7 Measurement repeatability
Two cascade-connected 0–90 dB coaxial step attenuators with PC 3.5 mm connec-
tors are measured 10 times to derive the measurement repeatability by

v
u n
uP
u (xk − x̄)2
uR = k=1 (3.16)
t
n(n − 1)
where n
P
xk
k=1
x̄ = (3.17)
n
and xk are the measurement data for each attenuation step and n is the number
of measurement (n = 10) [135].
3.4.8 Combined and Expanded Measurement Uncertainty
The uncertainty due to leakage is found to be negligible for measurement of attenu-
ation up to 110 dB. Measurement uncertainties includes the mismatch uncertainty,
nonlinearity, error due to receiver fluctuation and noise, IVD error, GBA uncer-
tainty and repeatability which are combined using root-sum-of-the-squares (RSS)
method [135] to yield the standard system uncertainty

sX
us = ( u2i ) (3.18)
i
The expanded system uncertainty is
Us = k us (3.19)
55
3.5. Comparison of Single-channel and Dual-channel System
where k is the coverage factor and k=2. Us defines an interval estimated to have a
level of confidence of approximately 95% [135].
3.5 Comparison of Single-channel and Dual-channel
System
3.5.1 Measurement of Low Attenuation
The performance of a single-channel attenuation measurement system is compared
to a dual-channel implementation. The single-channel system has a simpler design
and can cover a broad band since it does not require multiple isolators to reduce
internal microwave leakage. However, a single-channel system cannot make accu-
rate measurement at frequencies beyond 2 GHz. Fig. 3.4 shows the comparison of
the standard uncertainty due to LIA reading fluctuation for a 10 dB incremental
attenuation measurement using single-channel and dual-channel system at 50 MHz
to 26.5 GHz.
The uncertainty due to receiver fluctuation of single-channel system is 0.0006
dB from 50 MHz to 2 GHz, and starts to exceed 0.001 dB at frequencies above
3 GHz. At 26.5 GHz, the receiver reading fluctuation of a single-channel system
leads to 0.068 dB uncertainty in the attenuation measurement. The uncertainty
of dual-channel system due to receiver fluctuation is about 0.0006 dB to 0.0012
dB from 50 MHz to 26.5 GHz. The difference between the two systems becomes
significant when the microwave signal frequency exceeds 2 GHz.
In a single-channel system, the uncertainty due to LIA reading fluctuation at 2
GHz is similar to the mismatch uncertainty of an attenuator. Thus a single-channel
56
0.07
Standard uncertainty due to receiver fluctuation (dB)

0.06 single channel system
dual channel system
0.05
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
0
5 10 15 20 25
Frequency (GHz)
Figure 3.4: Comparison of the standard uncertainty due to LIA reading fluctuation
using single-channel and dual-channel systems for a 10 dB attenuation measure-
ment from 50 MHz to 26.5 GHz.
system is able to provide accurate attenuation measurement up to 2 GHz. A single-
channel system is more suitable for attenuation measurement from 50 MHz to 2
GHz due to its simpler design. From 2 to 26.5 GHz, a dual-channel system has to
be used for more accurate attenuation measurement.
3.5.2 Measurement of High Attenuation
For measurement of high attenuation above 80 dB, the error due to noise become
more significant compared with other measurement errors. To compare the perfor-
mance of single-channel and dual-channel system for high attenuation measurement
from 80 dB to 110 dB, we have conducted a linearity check through measuring an
incremental attenuation of ∼40 dB at decreasing receiver input levels.
In this experiment, a 40–70 dB step attenuator is used as the input LSA to
57
replace the GBA so that the signal level at the receiver input can be reduced. The
intention is to obtain the same receiver input level when an 80–110 dB attenuator
(DUT) is inserted into the system. The DUT’s incremental attenuation from 0 dB
to 40 dB is measured by the two systems at various LSA settings from 40 dB to
70 dB in 10 dB steps.
With various LSA settings, the receiver noise effect on high attenuation mea-
surement (80–110 dB) using the two systems can be compared. The signal mixer’s
RF input level is 76 dB below the LO drive signal level when input attenuator is set
to 40 dB and decreases to 106 dB below the LO drive signal level when input at-
tenuator is 70 dB, which simulates the mixer input level when a 110 dB attenuator
is inserted into the systems.
Table 3.2 compares the linearity of the single-channel and dual-channel systems
by the measurement of a 40 dB attenuator at 5 GHz. The DUT’s incremental
attenuation has been measured to be Ad = 40.157 dB at 5 GHz using the dual-
channel system. The deviation shown in Table 3.2 indicates the difference between
Ad and the measured value at the specified LSA setting.
Table 3.2: Comparison of linearity of the single-channel and the dual-channel sys-
tems by the measurement of a 0–40 dB step attenuator at 5 GHz.
Single Channel System Dual Channel System

Input LSA (dB) Mean Measured Deviation Mean Measured Deviation
Value (dB) Value (dB)
(dB) (dB)
40 40.157 0.000 40.157 0.000
50 40.153 -0.004 40.155 -0.002
60 40.139 -0.018 40.152 -0.005
70 40.121 -0.036 40.145 -0.012
As the RF signal level at mixer input decreases to 106 dB below LO drive level
(LSA set to 70 dB), the measurement deviation increases to 0.036 dB using the
58
3.6. A Broadband Attenuation Measurement System at 0.05–26.5 GHz
single-channel system. The bigger deviation of the single-channel system is due to
the receiver noise effect at low signal level. The data shows that the dual-channel
system has smaller error in high attenuation measurement at 5 GHz.
When the frequency of microwave signal increases beyond 5 GHz, the single-
channel system will have even larger error for high attenuation measurement, as
suggested by the comparison shown in Fig. 3.4. This experiment shows that the
dual-channel system performs better in recovering the signal at very low level and
obtains more accurate measurement for the attenuation beyond 90 dB.
There will be large deviation due to microwave leakage if the internal isolation
and the shielding in the dual-channel system are not sufficient. single-channel
system does not have internal leakage problem and the large deviation of 0.036
dB (when the LSA is 70 dB) is due to the receiver noise. The smaller deviation
achieved by the dual-channel system suggests that the RF leakage error has been
reduced to a level below the receiver noise floor. Thus the internal isolation and
shielding in the dual-channel system is sufficient.
3.6 A Broadband Attenuation Measurement Sys-
tem at 0.05–26.5 GHz
A broadband attenuation measurement system has been implemented using a
single-channel system at 0.05–2 GHz and a dual-channel system at 2–26.5 GHz.
Matching pads are used to reduce the mismatch uncertainty in the frequency range
from 50 MHz to 800 MHz. Mismatch uncertainties are estimated using a step at-
tenuator with PC 3.5 mm connector as the DUT. The uncertainty due to receiver
fluctuation and noise is one of the dominant uncertainty components for mea-
59
3.7. Measurement of a 0–110 dB Step Attenuator
surement of high attenuation from 80 dB to 110 dB. The expanded measurement
uncertainty (k=2) at 26 GHz is estimated to be 0.0072 dB for a 30 dB attenuator
and 0.016 dB for a 110 dB attenuator. Table 3.3 gives the uncertainty budget for
attenuation measurement from 0 to 110 dB at 26 GHz.
Table 3.3: 0–110 dB attenuation measurement uncertainty budget at 26 GHz using
the broadband measurement system.
Uncertainty Nominal Attenuation (dB)

components 0 - 30 30 - 60 70 80 90 100 110
IVD error 0.0004 0.0004 0.0002 0.0002 0.0003 0.0008 0.0020
Nonlinearity 0.0006 0.0006 0.0006 0.0006 0.0006 0.0006 0.0006
Mismatch 0.0018 0.0023 0.0022 0.0022 0.0022 0.0022 0.0022
Fluctuation and
0.0004 0.0004 0.0007 0.0014 0.0028 0.0028 0.0028
noise
Gauge block
0.0000 0.0036 0.0058 0.0058 0.0058 0.0058 0.0058
attenuator
Repeatability 0.0030 0.0038 0.0045 0.0039 0.0047 0.0026 0.0032
Combined
0.0036 0.0058 0.0077 0.0075 0.0083 0.0073 0.0078
uncertainty
Expanded
0.0072 0.012 0.015 0.015 0.017 0.015 0.016
uncertainty (k=2)
3.7 Measurement of a 0–110 dB Step Attenuator
Two 0-90 dB step attenuators in 10 dB step are cascade-connected to form a 0-110
dB synthesized step attenuator. The two step attenuators are called DU T1 and
DU T2 . We have measured the attenuation of the synthesized step attenuator from
0 dB to 110 dB in 10 dB step at 26 GHz to verify the performance of the proposed
measurement receiver.
Table 3.4 shows the settings of two step attenuators and the mean of 10 mea-
surements for each attenuation step. The repeatability and estimated expanded
60
3.8. Summary
measurement uncertainties (coverage factor k=2) are also given in Table 3.4. The
repeatability for each attenuation value is obtained using (3.16). The measure-
ment uncertainty components include IVD error, nonlinearity, mismatch, receiver
fluctuation and noise, GBA calibration uncertainty and repeatability.
Table 3.4: Attenuation measurement results of a 0-110 dB synthesized step atten-
uator (formed by connecting two 0-90 dB step attenuators which are referred to as
DU T1 and DU T2 ) at 26 GHz.
DUT1 Nominal DUT2 Nominal Nominal Total Mean Measured Expanded

Attenuation Attenuation Incremental Total Incremental Uncertainty
Step (dB) Step (dB) Attenuation (dB) Attenuation (dB) (dB)
0-10 0-0 10 10.008 0.0072

0-20 0-0 20 20.011 0.0072
0-30 0-0 30 30.029 0.0072
0-40 0-0 40 40.112 0.012
0-50 0-0 50 50.108 0.012
0-60 0-0 60 60.129 0.012
0-70 0-0 70 70.264 0.015
0-80 0-0 80 80.215 0.015
0-90 0-0 90 90.232 0.017
0-90 0-10 100 100.341 0.015
0-90 0-20 110 110.315 0.016
3.8 Summary
A single-channel and a dual-channel microwave attenuation measurement system
have been proposed in this chapter. Our proposed design has a DR higher than
those of earlier works [116,130–132] at 0.05–26.5 GHz. The performance of a single-
channel microwave attenuation measurement system is compared to a proposed
dual-channel implementation. The results show that a single-channel system is
more suitable for attenuation measurement from 50 MHz to 2 GHz due to its simpler
design and good accuracy. A dual-channel system has to be used for attenuation
61
3.8. Summary
measurement from 2 to 26.5 GHz since the receiver reading is more stable in this
frequency range.
A broadband microwave attenuation measurement system is implemented using
single-channel and dual-channel receivers. The system is traceable to an IVD at
5.02 kHz. Attenuation from 0 to 110 dB at 0.05–26.5 GHz can be measured with
high accuracy. The measurement dynamic range of the proposed system at 18–26.5
GHz is 30 dB higher than that of an attenuation measurement system reported
earlier in [116].
Measurement uncertainty analysis of the broadband system has been given. The
expanded systematic measurement uncertainty (k=2) is estimated to be 0.0072–
0.016 dB for a 0–110 dB variable attenuator at 26 GHz. The systems have been
used as the Singapore national standard for microwave attenuation measurement.
This system has participated in the Asia-Pacific Metrology Program (APMP)
attenuation key comparison APMP.EM.RF-K19.CL, which compared the attenua-
tion measurement of a step attenuator from 20 to 100 dB in 20 dB steps at 60 MHz
and 5 GHz [230,231]. Nine metrology institutes of APMP participated in this com-
parison. Our measurement values in this comparison agree with the comparison
reference values within the associated uncertainties.
62
Chapter 4
Analysis of Noise in the
Microwave Attenuation
Measurement Receiver
4.1 Introduction
The phase noise has been an important factor which makes it difficult to precisely
measure a low-level signal at microwave frequencies [232]. There is no detailed
analysis of the phase noise effect in microwave attenuation measurement system
in previous literature. Such an analysis can help us to understand the error in
measurement of high attenuation devices, which is mainly caused by the phase
noises in high frequency sources.
In this chapter, the noise floor of the proposed attenuation measurement receiver
is analysed. The phase noise effect in a phase sensitive detector has been modeled,
which has not been well studied in previous literature. Attenuation measurement
63
4.2. Measurement Receiver Noise
error caused by the phase noise effect has been studied analytically. Our theoretical
analysis agrees with the measurement results. It is shown that the proposed dual-
channel system can effectively reduce the phase noise effect at frequencies beyond
2 GHz. The DR of our microwave measurement receiver is defined. It is shown
that a record high DR of 186.7 dB has been achieved at 26 GHz when a microwave
amplifier is inserted before the input port. Our receiver noise floor is 47 dB lower
than that of a VNA at 26 GHz.
High DR transmission loss measurement is very useful for microwave imaging
system and material analysis using non-destructive method [38, 39, 98]. The atten-
uation measurement range of our receiver can be further improved. It is shown
that, with a microwave amplifier inserted before the receiver input, attenuators
with attenuation up to 170 dB can be measured with good accuracy using our
dual-channel measurement system. At 26 GHz, the expanded measurement uncer-
tainty is estimated to be 0.046 dB for a 120 dB attenuator and 0.16 dB for a 150
dB attenuator, respectively.
It is rather difficult to measure the leakage signal in high attenuation measure-
ment. We have proposed a new method to evaluate the leakage errors in attenu-
ation measurement for devices with high attenuation. This is critical for reliable
estimation of the measurement accuracy in high DR measurement.
4.2 Measurement Receiver Noise
4.2.1 Thermal Noise
For measurement of attenuation beyond 80 dB, the dominating error component
is the receiver noise. The sensitivity of a microwave receiver depends mainly on
64
4.2. Measurement Receiver Noise
its noise floor. The noise in our receiver comes from the thermal noise in pre-
amplifier, filters, mixers, IVD, LIA, and cables [71, 72, 75, 233, 234]. At higher
frequency offset from the microwave signal carrier frequency, the noise spectrum is
dominated by white thermal noise. The Johnson-Nyquist thermal noise power in
electronic circuits can be estimated from
Nt = kT B, (4.1)
where k is Boltzmann’s constant and k = 1.38 × 10−23 Joules/Kelvin, T is the
absolute temperature in Kelvin and B is the signal bandwidth in Hz [71, 72]. The
thermal noise power in a 1 Hz bandwidth is −174 dBm at a room temperature of
296 K .
4.2.2 Phase Noise
The receiver noise also comes from the amplitude modulation (AM) and phase
modulation (PM) noise in the microwave oscillators, which are shifted to the AF
range after mixing. In the frequency range closer to the carrier frequency, the flicker
noise (also called 1/f noise or phase noise) is more significant [80–83, 235–238].
The Leeson-Cutler phase noise model for tuned tank oscillators [81, 82, 236]
predicts the phase noise to be:

( " 2 # )
2F kT f0 fc
L(fm ) = 10 log10 · 1+ · 1+ (4.2)
Ps 2QL fm |fm |
where fm is the frequency offset from the carrier, fc is the flicker frequency corner,
F is the noise figure, Ps is the average power dissipated in the resistive part of the
tank, f0 is the oscillation frequency, and QL is the effective quality factor of the
tank with all the loadings in place. The phase noise L(f ) is expressed in dBc/Hz.
The phase noise of a microwave source increases with its carrier frequency. It has
65
4.3. Phase Noise Effect
been shown that phase noise in microwave devices is more meaningful in charac-
terizing the system noise level than the noise figure which is commonly used [232].
4.3 Phase Noise Effect
4.3.1 Phase Sensitive Detection using a LIA
A single-channel heterodyne receiver for attenuation measurement is shown in Fig.
4.1. The source, LO and the function generator are synchronized through a 10
MHz reference signal. A band-pass filter with 1 Hz bandwidth inserted before the
LIA will not be effective to reduce the receiver fluctuation which is mainly caused
by the phase noise of microwave sources, especially when the frequency of the
signal is beyond 2 GHz. The phase noise of a microwave signal generator increases
significantly as the carrier frequency increases from 2 GHz to 26.5 GHz and this
generates increased amplitude fluctuations in the LIA.
Source
AF (5.02 kHz)
DUT LP
Filter
Amp IVD LIA
LO Function Generator
(5.02 kHz)
10 MHz
reference
Figure 4.1: Block diagram for a single-channel microwave attenuation measurement
receiver.
When a DUT is set to 0 dB range (datum position), the IVD ratio is set to a
reference value D1 and the LIA detects an AF signal with a magnitude of A1 . After
the DUT is set to a particular attenuation range, the IVD ratio setting is adjusted
66
until the LIA detects a signal with a magnitude of A2 approximately equal to A1 at
an IVD ratio setting D2 . The microwave attenuation of the DUT is then calculated
as

D2 A1
A12 = 20 log10 (dB) (4.3)
D1 A2
A LIA requires a good frequency reference signal to recover a sinusoidal signal with
the same frequency when the signal-to-noise ratio is very low [226, 227]. The LIA
input signal A(sin(ω0 t + θs ) is multiplied to a reference signal 2 sin(ω0 t + θr ) to
generate an output given by
V (t) = 2A sin(ω0 t + θs ) sin(ω0 t + θr )
= A[cos(θ) + cos(2ω0 t + θs + θr )] (4.4)
where θ = θs − θr .
The signal V (t) is filtered by a low-pass filter to remove the AC component
A cos(2ω0 t + θs + θr ), and the remaining DC signal is X1 = A cos(θ) , where A is
the input signal amplitude and θ is the phase difference between the input signal
and reference signal.
Similarly, a second phase sensitive detector with the reference signal shifted by
90◦ will produce Y1 = A sin(θ). Thus the input signal amplitude can be derived as
q
M = X12 + Y12 = A (4.5)
The LIA can measure a weak signal’s amplitude with better accuracy, rejecting
most of the thermal noises. Usually a time constant of 1 second or 2 seconds is
sufficient to filter out the AC noise. The phase difference between the input and
reference signal must be constant, otherwise X and Y will be AC signals and cut
off by the low-pass filter.
67
In reality, the signal from the microwave source has random phase fluctuations,
which will be translated to AF range via mixing. The phase of the reference signal
provided by a low frequency waveform generator is much more stable compared to
that of the microwave sources, and can be assumed to be constant. Thus the phase
difference between the input and the reference signal will be time-varying. This will
introduce an error in the microwave attenuation measurement. When microwave
attenuation increases beyond 80 dB in the frequency range from 50 MHz to 26.5
GHz, the measurement uncertainty depends mainly on the LIA reading fluctuation,
which is directly related to the phase noise of the microwave sources.
4.3.2 Phase Noise Model
Phase noise characterises the frequency fluctuation of a microwave signal source in
the frequency domain [81–83,236,237]. The signal of the source can be modeled by
x(t) = Â(t) sin[2πf0 t + φ(t)] (4.6)
where Â(t) is the signal amplitude with random fluctuation, which is called AM
noise, and φ(t) represents the random phase fluctuation, also called phase noise.
The AM noise is usually much smaller than the phase noise. The phase fluctuation
will generate noise at a frequency offset from the carrier f0 . It has been shown
that [237] the signal can be modeled as
x(t) = Â sin[2πf0 t + m sin(2πfm t)] (4.7)
where the first term 2πf0 t represents an ideal phase and the second term is a
model of the phase fluctuation. m is the modulation index of a general frequency
modulation (FM) signal and m << 1. The phase noise is the standard deviation of
the phase fluctuation and can be described by its root-mean-square (RMS) value
68
in radian. The signal can be approximated as
x(t) = Â {sin(2πf0 t) cos[m sin(2πfm t)] + cos(2πf0 t) sin[m sin(2πfm t)]}
≈ Â {sin(2πf0 t) + m cos(2πf0 t) sin(2πfm t)}

n m m o
= Â sin(2πf0 t) + sin[2π(f0 + fm )t] − sin[2π(f0 − fm )t] (4.8)
2 2
where cos[m sin(2πfm t)] ≈ 1 and sin[m sin(2πfm t)] ≈ m sin(2πfm t) since m << 1.
The model shows an ideal carrier with two sidebands, each having a peak amplitude
of m/2. The sidebands show the phase noise spectra in frequency domain, which
is equivalent to the phase perturbation in the time domain.
The phase deviation has a RMS power given by
m2
φ2j = E[(m sin(2πfm t))2 ] = (4.9)
2
(4.8) shows that the spectral energy of each phase noise sideband in frequency
domain is m2 /4 and the total spectral energy of phase noise sidebands is m2 /2.
Thus for real signals with good spectral purity, the RMS phase jitter in radians2 is
equal to the phase noise spectral power. The RMS phase angle fluctuation can be
calculated from the phase noise spectrum as

Z f2
2
φj = 2 L(f )df (4.10)
f1
where L(f ) is the single-sideband (SSB) noise distribution in a 1 Hz bandwidth
relative to the power at center frequency f0 , given in dBc/Hz. The calculated
RMS phase fluctuation is due to the phase noise at frequency offset from f1 to f2
from the carrier frequency f0 .
4.3.3 Phase Noise Effect on Attenuation Measurement
The phase noise of the microwave signal can also be viewed as fluctuating in-
stantaneous carrier frequency around f0 . At the input of LIA, the AF signal
69
instantaneous frequency is also fluctuating quickly. Thus the detected signal in the
LIA becomes
X(t) = A cos[θ(t)] ∗ h(t)
Y (t) = A sin[θ(t)] ∗ h(t) (4.11)
where θ(t) denotes the random phase shift caused by phase noise of microwave
sources, ∗ denotes convolution operation and h(t) is the impulse response of the
low-pass filter used in the LIA. The RMS magnitude of the input signal measured
by the LIA becomes a time-varying signal M (t), given by
p
M (t) = X 2 (t) + Y 2 (t) 6= A (4.12)
The phase shift angle θ(t) and M (t) can be assumed to have a rectangular distri-
bution. The microwave attenuation is derived from the voltage ratio, and it now
becomes

D2 M1
Â12 = 20 log10 (dB) (4.13)
D1 M2
where the measured signal amplitudes M1 and M2 are different from the true values
A1 and A2 respectively due to the phase noise effect. θ(t) is due to the phase noise of
the microwave source and LO source. The maximum value of θ(t) can be estimated
from the sum of the phase noise of the microwave signal source and the LO,
sZ
f2 Z f2
θmax = 2 LSG (f )df + LLO (f )df , (4.14)
f1 f1
where LSG and LLO are the SSB phase noises of the microwave signal generator
and LO respectively, f1 and f2 are the frequency offset range used to estimate the
phase noise effect on the possible phase fluctuations of the AF signal at the input
of LIA. The frequency offset can be from 1 Hz to 100 kHz, which is sufficient to
provide a good estimate since phase noise beyond an offset of 100 kHz is usually
quite small and negligible. θ(t) can assume any value within [−θmax , θmax ]. θmax
70
is usually smaller than 1 radian. Since the phase shift θ(t) mainly depends on the
close-in phase noise, the maximum phase shift value is not affected by the low-
pass filtering inside the LIA. The demodulated signal X(t) and Y (t) in the LIA
are actually random quantity. It can be assumed that X 2 (t) and Y 2 (t) have their
maximum and minimum values which satisfy,
2
Xmax = A2
2
Xmin = A2 cos2 θmax (4.15)
and
2
Ymax = A2 sin2 θmax
2
Ymin = 0 (4.16)
Thus the detected magnitude by the LIA will have the following maximum and
minimum values,
p
Mmax = M0 1 + sin2 θmax ,
Mmin = M0 cos(θmax ) , (4.17)
The phase difference between the reference and input signal is given by
Y
δφ = φs − φr = arctan( )
X
= ψ(t) + E[φs ] − φr (4.18)
where E[φs ] is the mean value of the phase of the input signal, φr is the phase of
reference signal, ψ(t) is a zero-mean random variable which is purely due to the
phase noise of the microwave source and LO source. The phase of the AF reference
signal (φr ) is very stable and can be assumed to be constant. The phase of reference
signal can be adjusted by the LIA so that E[φs ] − φr = 0, then
Y
ψ(t) = arctan( ) (4.19)
X
71
The maximum value of ψ(t) is given by
Ymax
ψm = arctan( )
Xmin
= arctan(tan θmax ) = θmax (4.20)
Thus, the maximum phase fluctuation can be estimated from the phase noise data.
ψ(t) is assumed to have a rectangular distribution in [ −θmax , θmax ].
4.3.4 Phase Fluctuation Measured by the LIA
We have estimated the maximum phase shift caused by the phase noise of mi-
crowave source using (4.14) , based on the phase noise specification at 250–500
MHz, 3–10 GHz, 10–20 GHz and 20–30 GHz. The SSB phase noise of the mi-
crowave signal source and the LO is assumed to be the same as the instrument
specification, as given in Fig. 4.2. To verify our modeling and prediction of the
maximum phase and magnitude fluctuation at the LIA output, we also measured
those signals using a single-channel microwave attenuation measurement system as
shown in Fig. 4.1. Measurements have been made for microwave frequencies set at
50 MHz, 100 MHz, 500 MHz, 1 GHz, 2 GHz, 4 GHz, 8 GHz, 12 GHz, 18 GHz and
26 GHz.
Fig. 4.3 shows the maximum phase fluctuation measured by the LIA and the
predicted values by (4.14) using phase noise data shown in Fig. 4.2. The phase noise
data is an average for each band, thus the predicted maximum phase fluctuations
are also average values for each band. The maximum phase fluctuation measured
by the LIA agrees well with the predicted theoretic values.
At a microwave frequency of 26 GHz, the maximum and minimum amplitudes
of the detected signal by LIA are 1.5059 mV and 1.4801 mV respectively. The
maximum phase difference between input and reference signal is estimated to be
72
θmax =7.55◦ using (4.14) . This value agrees with the measured value for θmax
which is about 8◦ .
−20
250−500 MHz
3− 10 GHz
10 − 20 GHz
−40
20 − 30 GHz
SSB Phase noise (dBc/Hz)
−60
−80
−100
−120
−140
0 1 2 3 4 5
10 10 10 10 10 10
Frequency offset (Hz)
Figure 4.2: The SSB phase noise L(f) of the microwave sources, based on the
instrument specifications at 250–500 MHz, 3–10 GHz, 10–20 GHz and 20–30 GHz.
73
10
9 measured value
predicted value
8
7
Maximum phase fluctuation (deg)
−1
2 3 4
10 10 10
Microwave carrier frequency (MHz)
Figure 4.3: The maximum phase fluctuation measured by the LIA and the predicted
values using the phase noise data shown in Fig. 4.2 (frequency range: 0.05–26 GHz).
74
4.3.5 Attenuation Measurement Error due to Phase Noise
It has been shown that the detected signal by the LIA has a fluctuation in mag-
nitude from Mmin to Mmax due to the phase fluctuation of the AF signal at the
LIA input, which is not phase-locked to the LIA external reference signal in our
single-channel system.
In an ideal case where no magnitude fluctuation exists in LIA detection,
x 0 T 1 D1 G s = M0
x 0 T 2 D2 G s = M0 , (4.21)
where x0 is the input signal level at the test port 1, T1 and T2 are the DUT initial
and final attenuation (in linear scale) respectively, D1 and D2 are the corresponding
IVD ratio used to get the same signal magnitude of M0 at the LIA, and Gs is the
receiver gain (in linear scale). Then the derived incremental attenuation of DUT
is
D2
A = 20 log10
D1
T1
= 20 log10 (dB). (4.22)
T2
Assume the signal magnitude detected by the LIA is Mmax when IVD ratio is set
to D̄1 and Mmin when IVD ratio is set to D̄2 , then we have the following,
x0 T1 D̄1 Gs = Mmax , (4.23)
x0 T2 D̄2 Gs = Mmin , (4.24)
and the derived incremental attenuation of DUT becomes
D̄2
Ā = 20 log10 ( )
D̄1
!
T1 cos θmax
= 20 log10 ( ) + 20 log10 p . (4.25)
T2 1 + sin2 θmax
75
The error in attenuation measurement caused by the phase fluctuation is assumed
to be uniformly distributed in [−epn , epn ], where epn is the maximum error given
by
epn = A − Ā
p !
1 + sin2 θmax
= 20 log10 . (4.26)
cos θmax
The standard measurement uncertainty [135] in attenuation due to phase noise
effect is obtained as
epn
upn = √ . (4.27)
3
The maximum phase fluctuation of the AF signal in our single-channel receiver
are measured to be 0.03◦ to 8◦ for microwave signal from 50 MHz to 26.5 GHz.
The upn estimated from the measured maximum phase fluctuation in LIA using our
single-channel receiver is below 0.0005 dB from 50 MHz to 2 GHz, and increases
to 0.097 dB at 26 GHz (shown in Fig. 4.4). For measurement of low attenuation
below 30 dB at frequencies beyond 1 GHz, the phase noise effect is more significant
than the thermal noise effect in our single-channel system.
In our dual-channel receiver, the reference signal of the LIA is from the reference
receiver which shares the same signal source and LO, thus the phase fluctuation
of the AF signal at the LIA input is very small. The maximum phase fluctuation
θmax is measured to be below 0.05◦ , and the phase noise effect on the attenuation
measurement is reduced significantly for signals from 1 GHz to 26.5 GHz. It is
found that the phase noise effect on final signal detection in LIA is similar from
50 MHz to 26.5 GHz using a dual-channel receiver. The standard measurement
uncertainty in attenuation due to phase noise effect is below 0.00015 dB using our
dual-channel receiver.
If the single-channel receiver is used for attenuation measurement up to 2 GHz,
76
−4
x 10
7
Attenuation measurement uncertainty (dB)

5
−1
200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
Carrier frequency (MHz)
(a)
0.09
Attenuation measurement uncertainty (dB)
0.08
0.07
0.06
0.05
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
0
5 10 15 20 25
Carrier frequency (GHz)
(b)
Figure 4.4: The standard attenuation measurement uncertainty due to phase noise
effect using single-channel system for the frequency range: (a) 0.05–2 GHz, (b)
2–26 GHz.
77
4.4. Noise Floor in a Dual-channel System
the phase noise effect is negligible (upn ≤ 0.0005 dB). For frequencies from 2 to
26.5 GHz, a dual-channel receiver need to be used to ensure phase noise effect is
minimized.
4.4 Noise Floor in a Dual-channel System
4.4.1 Noise Measurement using the LIA
For measurement of attenuation higher than 90 dB, the magnitude of the signals
detected by the LIA is smoothed using data collected in 25 seconds consecutively.
This smoothing helps to reduce the effect of random noise. The LIA time constant
has been set to 2 seconds. The measurement process for each attenuation value
takes less than 40 seconds to complete. Thus the signal magnitude fluctuation
at LIA output within 120 seconds would be able to indicate the noise effect on
measurement result. We have processed the data measured by the LIA in 120
seconds to evaluate the magnitude fluctuation after such a smoothing.
Let yk (k = 1, 2, ..., 120) denotes the magnitude data detected by LIA in 120
seconds with one sample per second, the smoothed samples ȳi (i = 1, 2, ..., 96) are
obtained by
i+24
1 X
ȳi = yk , i = 1, 2, ..., 96 (4.28)
25 k=i
Fig. 4.5(a) shows the magnitude and phase of the signal detected by LIA with
110 dB attenuation inserted between the two test ports at 26 GHz (the LSA is not
used and the GBA is set to 0 dB). Fig. 4.5(b) shows the smoothed magnitude data
ȳi which has been obtained using (4.28) from raw data measured in 120 seconds.
The pre-amplifier gain is set to 54 dB and IVD ratio is set to 0.96 when the DUT
attenuation is set to 110 dB. It can be seen that the signal phase is quite stable.
78
The mean value of the smoothed signal’s magnitude is s = 704.4 µV and the
maximum fluctuation around its mean value is about n1 = 0.4 µV. Therefore, the
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at LIA output when a 110 dB attenuator is inserted
between two test ports is estimated to be
s
SN R = 20 log10 ≈ 65 (dB). (4.29)
n1
4.4.2 Receiver Noise Floor
The equivalent noise floor at receiver input at port 2 (in Fig. 3.2 ) is defined as
Ne = P1 − Adut,110dB − SN R110dB , (4.30)
where P1 is the power at port 1, Adut,110dB is the attenuation of a 110 dB attenuator
and SN R110dB refer to the SNR estimated at LIA output when a 110 dB attenuator
is inserted at test port.
The equivalent noise floor Ne includes the effect of noises from the mixer, the
filters, the pre-amplifier and the LIA. The SNR at the LIA output is estimated
to be 65 dB when a 110 dB attenuator is inserted at test port at 26 GHz. The
equivalent noise floor of the system is estimated using (4.30) to be
Ne ≈ 14.3 dBm − 110.3 dB − 65 dB = −161 dBm. (4.31)
The Ne indicates the minimum discernible signal level of the measurement receiver.
79
706
705.5
705
704.5
704
703.5
703
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
time (sec)
63.75
Phase (deg)
63.7
63.65
63.6
63.55
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
time (sec)
(a)
704.9
704.8
704.7
704.6
704.5
704.4
704.3
704.2
704.1
704
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Sample
(b)
Figure 4.5: (a): The magnitude and phase of the signal detected by LIA with 110
dB attenuation inserted between test ports in the dual-channel receiver at 26 GHz,
data collected in 120 seconds (one sample per second), (b): smoothed magnitude
data obtained by (4.28) using the raw magnitude data shown in (a).
80
4.4.3 Receiver Dynamic Range
The DR of a conventional microwave receiver or a VNA is determined by the
maximum signal power level at the receiver input and the receiver noise floor. In
a VNA, the receiver input power level is usually specified to be below a certain
compression point to ensure good measurement accuracy. The DR specification of
a VNA is based on the maximum nonlinearity error in attenuation measurement
which could be 0.45 dB if it is allowed by an application [115, 223, 224].
In voltage-ratio based attenuation measurement systems, the signal power level
at the mixer RF input needs to be at least 30 to 35 dB below the LO drive level
to ensure the nonlinearity error is around 0.001 dB [140, 164, 229]. For DUT atten-
uation below 30 dB, we have placed a 30 dB LSA before the DUT to ensure the
signal level at mixer input is below the 0.001 dB compression point.
For DUT attenuation higher than 30 dB, a GBA is inserted into the circuit to
serve as a reference and the attenuation of the DUT is compared with that of the
GBA. Thus the signal level at mixer input in this indirect measurement process is
also below the 0.001 dB compression point. Therefore, the combination of direct
and indirect attenuation measurement method enables the DR of the measurement
system to be extended beyond the mixer compression point. The upper limit of
our DR is determined by the maximum RF power available at port 1.
The DR of the measurement receiver is defined as
DRs = P1 − Ne , (4.32)
The DRs gives the maximum range of attenuation that can be measured by the
receiver. The P1 of the system is around 14 dBm at 26 GHz. Thus the measurement
81
4.5. Attenuation Measurement Uncertainty due to Noise
receiver DR at 26 GHz is estimated to be
DRs ≈ 14 dBm − (−161 dBm) = 175 dB. (4.33)
4.5 Attenuation Measurement Uncertainty due
to Noise
Attenuation measurement without any noise effect is modeled by (4.21). In the
presence of noise in the detected signal by the LIA, assuming the worst case when
the noise magnitude after smoothing has the maximum value, the model for the
measurement when DUT is set to a higher attenuation becomes
x0 T2 D̄2 Gs = M0 + Nf , (4.34)
where Nf is the noise floor level in the measurement made by the LIA. When DUT
attenuation is set to 0 dB and GBA is set to 60 dB or 110 dB, the noise effect on
the LIA measurement can be ignored. Thus we have
x0 T1 D̄1 Gs = M0 , (4.35)
The derived incremental attenuation of DUT becomes
D̄2
Ā = 20 log10 ( )
D̄1

T1 M0 + N f
= 20 log10 ( ) + 20 log10 . (4.36)
T2 M0
The error in attenuation measurement caused by the noise can be assumed to have
a rectangular distribution within [−en , en ] where en is determined by
en = Ā − A

Nf
= 20 log10 1 + . (4.37)
M0
82
4.6. Measurement of Attenuation up to 170 dB
The standard measurement uncertainty in attenuation due to noise effect (coverage
factor k = 1) is obtained as
en
un = √ . (4.38)
3
and un can be estimated from the SNR at LIA output by

20 1
un = √ log10 1 + SN R/20 (dB), (4.39)
3 10
where
SN R = 20 log10 (M0 /Nf )
= DRs − Adut , (4.40)
and Adut is the attenuation of DUT in dB. The SNR for measurement of 110 dB
attenuation at 26 GHz is estimated to be 65 dB.
The receiver noise will cause a dominating error in the measurement of large
attenuation higher than 90 dB. The standard measurement uncertainty due to
noise (coverage factor k=1) at 26 GHz is 0.0028 dB and 0.74 dB for attenuation
value of 110 dB and 170 dB, respectively.
4.6 Measurement of Attenuation up to 170 dB
4.6.1 Dynamic Range Improvement
For measurement of attenuation beyond 110 dB, a microwave amplifier is inserted
before the main mixer input to improve the measurement accuracy. The microwave
amplifier has a noise figure of about 13 dB at 26 GHz. The receiver noise floor is
estimated as
Ne′ = P1′ − Adut,170dB − SN R170dB , (4.41)
83
where P1′ is the power at port 1, Adut,170dB is the attenuation of a 170 dB attenuator
and SN R170dB refer to the SNR estimated at LIA output when a 170 dB attenuator
is inserted at test port. Tuner is not used for measurement of 110-170 dB to reduce
leakage error. P1′ is measured to be 14.7 dBm at 26 GHz. The SNR for measurement
of a 170 dB attenuator at 26 GHz is estimated to be 16 dB. The equivalent noise
floor is estimated using (4.41) to be
Ne′ ≈ 14.7 dBm − 170.7 dB − 16 dB = −172 dBm. (4.42)
The receiver noise floor without using the microwave amplifier has been estimated
to be −161 dBm. We can see that the microwave amplifier inserted before port
2 helps to reduce the receiver noise floor by about 11 dB. The LIA bandwidth
is 0.06 Hz. Therefore the theoretical thermal noise limit in the receiver at room
temperature (296 K) is about −186 dBm. The Ne′ approaches this limit. The DR
of the system using the microwave amplifier is about 186.7 dB at 26 GHz. This
receiver has achieved very sensitive detection using LIA with a coherent frequency
reference.
4.6.2 Measurement Results
A 110 dB GBA is used for measurement of DUT attenuation from 120 to 170 dB,
and Adut is derived as
Adut = δA,3 + AGB,110dB (dB) , (4.43)
where δA,3 is the measured difference between the incremental attenuation of the
DUT and the 110 dB GBA. AGB,110dB are the calibrated incremental attenuation
of the GBA from its datum position to the 110 dB setting. If a DUT has an
attenuation setting of 110 dB, it can be used as a GBA and inserted between the
test ports during indirect measurement.
84
Two 0-90 dB step attenuators in 10 dB step are cascade-connected to form a
0-170 dB synthesized step attenuator. The two step attenuators are called DU T1
and DU T2 . We have measured the attenuation of the synthesized step attenuator
at its 120–170 dB range in 10 dB step at 26 GHz to verify the DR of the proposed
measurement receiver. The attenuation measurements from 120 dB to 170 dB are
performed by indirect measurement using the 110 dB setting as the GBA (DU T1
set to 90 dB and DU T2 set to 20 dB).
Table 4.1 shows the settings of two step attenuators and the mean of 10 mea-
surements for each attenuation step. The repeatability and estimated expanded
measurement uncertainties (coverage factor k=2) are also given in Table 4.1. The
measurement uncertainty components include IVD error, nonlinearity, mismatch,
receiver fluctuation due to noise, repeatability and GBA calibration uncertainty.
The standard uncertainty due to receiver noise is 0.27 dB and 0.75 dB for mea-
surement of 160 dB and 170 dB attenuation, respectively. Table 4.1 shows that
the deviations of the mean measured attenuation from their nominal values are less
than 1 dB.
Table 4.1: Attenuation measurement results of a synthesized step attenuator at its
120-170 dB range (formed by connecting two 0-90 dB step attenuators which are
referred to as DU T1 and DU T2 ) at 26 GHz.
DUT1 Nominal DUT2 Nominal Nominal Total Mean Measured Expanded

0-90 0-30 120 120.445 0.046
0-90 0-40 130 130.536 0.054
0-90 0-50 140 140.503 0.078
0-90 0-60 150 150.678 0.16
0-90 0-70 160 160.494 0.62
0-90 0-80 170 170.679 1.6
85
4.6.3 Investigation of Leakage
We have conducted another experiment to check the noise and leakage effect on
high attenuation measurement. The incremental attenuations (A1 ) from 120 dB to
170 dB were measured with reference to the 110 dB setting of the synthesized step
attenuator (DU T1 set to 90 dB and DU T2 set to 20 dB) and the results are listed in
Table 4.2. These measurements can be compared to the incremental attenuations
(A2 ) from 30 dB to 80 dB measured with reference to the 20 dB setting of DU T2
(with DU T1 set to 0 dB), which is given in Table 4.3.
A1 and A2 are actually the measurements of the same incremental attenuation
in DU T2 , but A2 has much smaller measurement uncertainty since it is measured
at a much higher signal level. The expanded uncertainties of A1 and A2 are listed
in Table 4.2 and Table 4.3, respectively.
The differences between these measurements (A1 − A2 , listed in Table 4.3) will
indicate the noise and leakage effect on the high attenuation measurement. Table
4.3 shows that the difference (A1 − A2 ) for each incremental attenuation value
is smaller than the sum of the corresponding measurement uncertainties of A1
and A2 , which means that they agree with each other within their corresponding
measurement uncertainties. Thus we can conclude that the error due to leakage for
measurement of attenuation up to 170 dB is negligible considering the uncertainty
due to receiver noise.
These measurement results show that our estimation of the receiver DR is valid.
Our measurement receiver has achieved very low noise floor and wide dynamic
range for microwave attenuation measurement.
86
4.7. Discussions
Table 4.2: Measurement of incremental attenuations (A1 ) from 120 dB to 170 dB
with reference to the 110 dB setting at 26 GHz (DU T1 set to 90 dB, DU T2 varying
from 20 dB to 80 dB).
Mean
DUT1 DUT2
Measured Expanded
Nominal Nominal Incremental Uncertainty
Attenuation Attenuation Attenuation, of A1 (dB)
Step (dB) Step (dB) A1 (dB)
90 20-30 10.130 0.043 0 20-30 10.096 0.00
90 20-40 20.221 0.051 0 20-40 20.178 0.01
90 20-50 30.188 0.076 0 20-50 30.155 0.01
90 20-60 40.363 0.16 0 20-60 40.263 0.01
90 20-70 50.179 0.62 0 20-70 50.256 0.01
90 20-80 60.364 1.6 0 20-80 60.185 0.01
Table 4.3: Measurement of DU T2 incremental attenuations (A2 ) from 30 dB to 80
dB with reference to its 20 dB setting at 26 GHz and comparison with measure-
ments A1 .
Mean
DUT1 DUT2
Measured Expanded
Nominal Nominal A1 − A2
Incremental Uncertainty
Attenuation Attenuation (dB)
Attenuation, of A2 (dB)
Step (dB) Step (dB)
A2 (dB)
20-30 10.130 0.043 0 20-30 10.096 0.0072 0.034
20-40 20.221 0.051 0 20-40 20.178 0.012 0.043
20-50 30.188 0.076 0 20-50 30.155 0.012 0.033
20-60 40.363 0.16 0 20-60 40.263 0.012 0.10
20-70 50.179 0.62 0 20-70 50.256 0.015 -0.077
20-80 60.364 1.6 0 20-80 60.185 0.015 0.18
4.7 Discussions
A VNA is a powerful microwave instrument, which has been used in many national
metrology institutes for attenuation measurement. A VNA employs a main channel
IF receiver for transmission measurement and a reference channel IF receiver to
provide a reference IF signal for VNA calibration and synchronous detection. The
reference IF signal is used to phase-lock the LO drives in the vector receivers which
convert the IF signals to lower frequencies for coherent detection [168].
The phase-lock loop used in a VNA has some residual random phase error, which
87
4.7. Discussions
leads to random deviations between the instantaneous frequency of the IF signal
and the LO in the vector receiver. Such random deviations behave like a phase noise
effect which increases the noise floor in the synchronous detection. A VNA has a
receiver noise floor of about −125 dBm and a typical attenuation measurement DR
of 125 dB at 26 GHz (with 10 Hz IF bandwidth) [223, 224]. The noise floor of the
VNA restricts its DR in attenuation measurement.
As shown in Chapter 3 and 4, we have proposed a novel approach to reduce
our receiver noise floor to −172 dBm at 26 GHz using a LIA-based dual channel
design. A LIA can extract a weak AC signal with known carrier frequency from ex-
tremely noisy environment [227, 239, 240]. The background noise can be effectively
suppressed when the frequency of the signal is known accurately.
In our proposed design, the main channel AF signal is detected by a LIA. The
LIA employs the coherent frequency reference signal at 5.02 kHz provided by the
reference channel receiver to detect the main channel AF signal with low SNR. The
deviations between the instantaneous frequency of the main channel and reference
channel AF signal are negligible since they are generated from the same microwave
source and LO. This means that the phase noise effect in the receiver is essentially
removed, which ensures that the synchronous detection by LIA has very good
sensitivity. Our LIA-based receiver has achieved a record high DR of 186.7 dB at
26 GHz, which is almost 62 dB higher than that of a VNA.
88
4.8. Summary
4.8 Summary
We have studied the thermal noise and phase noise effect in our single-channel and
dual-channel receivers for microwave attenuation measurement. It is shown that
phase noise effect play a key role in limiting the attenuation measurement DR of
single-channel system at microwave frequencies. Our proposed dual-channel design
can significantly suppress the phase noise effect and improve the measurement DR.
The DR of the proposed attenuation measurement receiver has been defined
and analysed. The system has been designed carefully to reduce the leakage to
a level which is negligible compared to the receiver noise. The DR of the dual-
channel system without using a microwave amplifier is estimated to be 175 dB
at 26 GHz. When a microwave amplifier is inserted before port 2, the equivalent
receiver noise floor is estimated to be −172 dBm and the measurement DR is about
186.7 dB at 26 GHz. The expanded measurement uncertainty at 26 GHz is 0.046
dB for a 120 dB attenuator and 0.16 dB for a 150 dB attenuator, respectively. A
synthesized step attenuator has been measured at 120–170 dB range at 26 GHz
to verify the performance of the proposed measurement system. The proposed
system can calibrate a 0–170 dB microwave step attenuator at 26 GHz, which is
not possible using other systems.
89
Chapter 5
Microwave Phase-Shift Precision
Measurement
5.1 Introduction
Accurate measurement of the microwave transmission phase-shift of a two-port
device is very important. Various microwave phase-shift measurement standards
have been developed [55, 60–62]. Measurement uncertainties of 0.1◦ to 0.3◦ have
been achieved for devices with low attenuation below 10 GHz [61]. The phase-
shift for a device with attenuations up to 140 dB has been measured with an
accuracy around 0.1◦ at 60 MHz using a dual-channel system [121]. However,
this dual-channel system only works at 0.5–100 MHz. High accuracy phase-shift
measurement system for high attenuation devices with uncertainty below 0.4◦ at
0.1–18 GHz has not been reported in the literature. Such a measurement standard
is required to provide traceable and accurate measurements for various applications.
Transmission phase-shift can be measured by a commercial VNA with an ex-
panded uncertainty of 0.2◦ –7◦ at 18 GHz for a device with attenuation less than 80
90
5.1. Introduction
dB [133]. The phase-shift measurement uncertainty using a VNA could reach 19◦
at 18 GHz if the device attenuation is 100 dB. The significant increase in trans-
mission phase measurement uncertainty is mainly due to the decreased SNR as the
DUT attenuation increases.
We have proposed a 0.05–18 GHz dual-channel phase-shift measurement system
which has measurement uncertainties of 0.09◦ –0.32◦ at 18 GHz for a coaxial device
with variable attenuation up to 140 dB. The phase-shift measurement uncertainty
of our system for a 100 dB attenuator at 18 GHz is ∼106 times smaller than that
of a VNA [133]. In this chapter, the system design and measurement uncertainty
analysis of the new phase-shift measurement system is presented. Measurement
results of a 0–140 dB step attenuator are presented.
The leakage error in phase-shift measurement has not been well studied in the
literature. We have proposed a new method to evaluate the leakage error in phase-
shift measurement for devices with high attenuation. This is critical for reliable
estimation of the phase measurement accuracy in high DR measurement. Mismatch
error is an important source of uncertainties in phase-shift measurement. The mis-
match uncertainty in differential phase-shift measurements has been investigated
in [56]. However, a mismatch error model for insertion phase-shift measurement is
still not available. In this chapter, we have investigated the mismatch uncertainty
in insertion phase-shift measurement and derived a formula for its estimation.
A beadless coaxial air line has been used as a phase-shift reference standard
to verify the system performance. The theoretical insertion phase-shift of the air
line is calculated with consideration of the line’s insertion loss and compared to
the measured values given by the measurement system. The calculated phase-
shift value agrees well with the measured values within the estimated measurement
uncertainties.
91
5.2. A Precision Phase-Shift Measurement System at 0.05–18 GHz
5.2 A Precision Phase-Shift Measurement Sys-
tem at 0.05–18 GHz
There are two types of phase-shift: insertion phase-shift defined for a two-port
network with fixed attenuation and phase-shift, and differential phase-shift defined
for variable attenuator or phase-shifter [139].
A block diagram of the dual-channel phase-shift measurement system from 50
MHz to 18 GHz is shown in Fig. 5.1. The LIA uses the frequency reference signal
provided by the reference channel to achieve sensitive detection with phase resolu-
tion of 0.01 degrees. The dual-channel receiver is coherent and can make accurate
phase-shift measurement. As the RF signal is converted to AF by the mixer, the
RF phase-shift information is kept in the AF signal.
RF Source
(0.05 − 18 GHz)
Gauge Block
Attenuator DUT
(inserted for indirect
phase-shift Main
Insertion Point
measurement)
Mixer
AF (5.02 kHz)
RF Amp
RF
Tuner Tuner
or Pad or Pad
LO
Level Set Attenuator Isolator Isolator
(inserted for direct
Attenuator phase-shift
measurement) Port 1 Port 2 Low-pass Filter
Attenuator
Ref
RF
Mixer Pre-Amp
LO
Band-pass Filter
Multiple Isolators in 11 bands
10 MHz IVD
Reference LO Source
(0.05 − 18 GHz)
AF (5.02 kHz)
Low-pass Pre-Amp Band-pass Lock-in Amp
Filter Filter Frequency Reference
Figure 5.1: Block diagram of the dual-channel heterodyne phase-shift measurement
system from 50 MHz to 18 GHz.
Before the DUT is inserted, the phase of AF signal detected by the LIA is
92
5.2. A Precision Phase-Shift Measurement System at 0.05–18 GHz
θ1 . After the insertion of a DUT, the IVD ratio are adjusted till the LIA detects
a signal with magnitude similar to that before DUT insertion (voltage difference
< 1 µV ), and the phase of the AF signal detected by the LIA is θ2 . Thus the
insertion phase-shift of the DUT is derived as
arg(s21 ) = θDU T = θ2 − θ1 . (5.1)
where s21 is the transmission coefficient of the DUT.
Similarly, differential phase-shift of a variable attenuator or phase-shifter can be
obtained from
θD = θf′ − θi′ (5.2)
where θi′ and θf′ are the phases measured by the LIA when the DUT is at its initial
and final setting, respectively.
When the signal frequency is above 800 MHz, a tuner is placed before and after
the insertion point to reduce the reflection from the source and load side. Below
800 MHz, a matching pad is used instead of a tuner. The tuner or the pad helps
to reduce the mismatch error in phase-shift measurement.
There is an internal leakage path going through the reference mixer, isolators,
directional coupler and enters the signal mixer RF port (from LO to RF port).
Multiple isolators and a directional coupler are used in the leakage path between
the LO ports of two mixers to reduce such leakage. A 60 dB attenuator is inserted
before the reference mixer RF input to reduce the internal leakage. There is also
an external leakage due to radiation from tuners and isolators. Thus the tuner and
the isolator attached to it are put inside two shield boxes to reduce the radiation
leakage.
The system can accurately measure the phase-shift of a DUT with attenuation
up to 140 dB. When DUT attenuation exceeds 90 dB, a low-noise RF amplifier is
93
inserted before the input of the main mixer. The RF amplifier is used to improve
the SNR in phase-shift measurement.
To avoid mixer compression and nonlinearity error when measuring attenuation
below 40 dB, a 30 dB LSA is inserted before the DUT. For measurement of a DUT
with attenuation higher than 40 dB, the LSA (30 dB) is replaced by a GBA which
is a step attenuator whose phase-shift has been calibrated.
For a DUT with attenuation from 40 to 90 dB, a 0–40 dB step attenuator is
used as the GBA for indirect measurement. The GBA is first set to 40 dB when
DUT setting is 0 dB, and then changed to 0 dB when DUT is set to a value higher
than 40 dB. The difference between the phase-shift of the DUT and the GBA is
measured in this process to be
δθ = θDU T − θGBA (5.3)
where θGBA is the GBA’s phase-shift. Thus the phase-shift of the DUT is derived
as
θDU T = δθ + θGBA . (5.4)
For a DUT with attenuation from 90 to 140 dB, a 0–90 dB step attenuator is used
as the GBA for indirect measurement.
5.3.1 IVD Phase Error
The IVD is used to adjust the gain of the measurement receiver for various atten-
uation range of the DUT, so that the signal level at the LIA input before DUT
insertion is similar to that after DUT insertion. The maximum phase error caused
94
by the change of IVD ratio is about 0.02◦ . The standard uncertainty due to the
√
IVD phase error is estimated to be uI = 0.02/ 3 = 0.012◦ assuming a rectangular
distribution.
5.3.2 Receiver Fluctuation and Noise
The detected signal by the LIA has a RMS magnitude around 1 mV and it has a
maximum fluctuation of 0.01◦ in its phase reading when the DUT attenuation is
less than 110 dB at 2 GHz. The maximum phase fluctuation for DUT with low
attenuation increases to 0.02◦ at 18 GHz.
The fluctuation increases when the noise effect is more significant at higher
attenuation levels. 600 phase readings are taken for a DUT with attenuation above
100 dB (at a rate of 10 samples per second) to get an averaged estimate of the phase-
shift value. The averaging reduces the random noise error in phase measurement.
As DUT attenuation increases to 140 dB, the maximum deviation of the phase
reading θx (after averaging) from its mean value (θ0 ) was measured to be ef = 0.15◦
at 2 GHz and ef = 0.21◦ at 18 GHz.
It is assumed that the probability for the value of θx to lie within [θ0 −ef , θ0 +ef ]
is equal to one and the probability that θx lies outside this interval is essentially
zero. Since there is no specific knowledge about the possible values of θx within the
interval, we can only assume that it is equally probable for θx to lie anywhere within
[θ0 − ef , θ0 + ef ]. According to [135], a rectangular distribution can be assumed for
the phase reading θx . In [130], it is also assumed that the receiver fluctuation error
due to instability has a rectangular distribution. Thus the standard uncertainty
due to the receiver reading fluctuation in phase-shift measurement can be estimated
95
as
√
uf = ef / 3. (5.5)
5.3.3 Phase Drift
The detected phase of the main channel has a small drift error due to the phase
noise of the two microwave sources. The dual-channel heterodyne receiver uses
a phase reference signal generated from the same RF and LO sources which are
also used by the main channel, thus the phase noise effect on the detected phase
difference between two channels is greatly reduced. The maximum phase drift at 2
GHz has been measured to be ed = 0.03◦ in 1 minutes. The standard uncertainty

√
due to the phase drift error is estimated to be ud = 0.03/ 3 = 0.023◦ assuming a
rectangular distribution.
If the reference of the LIA is generated by a function generator as in a non-
coherent single channel system, the maximum phase drift at 2 GHz will increase to
ed = 2◦ in 1 minute. Thus the dual-channel system can significantly improve the
phase-shift measurement accuracy.
5.3.4 GBA Phase-shift Error
For DUT with attenuation in the range from 40 dB to 140 dB, its phase-shift is de-
rived indirectly by comparing the DUT to a 40 dB or 90 dB GBA. The phase-shift of
the GBAs have been calibrated previously with certain measurement uncertainties,
which should be included in the uncertainty for the DUT phase-shift measurement.
96
Differential phase-shift measurement
Mismatch error in differential phase-shift measurements has been investigated in
[56]. The mismatch error can be derived as

(1 − ΓG s11e )(1 − ΓL s22e ) − ΓG ΓL s12e s21e
ǫd = arg
(1 − ΓG s11b )(1 − ΓL s22b ) − ΓG ΓL s12b s21b
≈ arg {1 − ΓG s11e − ΓL s22e + ΓG ΓL (s11e s22e − s12e s21e )
+ΓG s11b + ΓL s22b − ΓG ΓL (s11b s22b − s12b s21b )} (5.6)
Let
Ed = 1 − ΓG s11e − ΓL s22e + ΓG ΓL (s11e s22e − s12e s21e )
+ΓG s11b + ΓL s22b − ΓG ΓL (s11b s22b − s12b s21b ) (5.7)
and
Ep = −ΓG s11e − ΓL s22e + ΓG ΓL (s11e s22e − s12e s21e )
+ΓG s11b + ΓL s22b − ΓG ΓL (s11b s22b − s12b s21b ) (5.8)
Thus
ǫd = arg(Ed ) = arg(1 + Ep ) (5.9)
For arbitrary phases of the coefficients, the magnitude of Ep is at its maximum
value when all of the vectors have the same directions, i.e.,
lim |Ep | = |ΓG s11b | + |ΓG s11e | + |ΓL s22b | + |ΓL s22e | +
|ΓG ΓL |(|s11b s22b | + |s11e s22e | + |s12b s21b | + |s12e s21e |) (5.10)
The vector summation of 1 + Ep will result in various vector Ed and ǫd . The
maximum and minimum of ǫd will occur when the |Ep | is at its maximum and
vector Ep is perpendicular to Ed , as shown in Fig. 5.2.
97
Ed Ep
lim İd
– lim İd
1
Figure 5.2: Maximum error due to mismatch in differential phase-shift measure-
ment.
The limit of the mismatch error in differential phase-shift measurements may be
written as
sin(lim ǫd ) = |ΓG s11b | + |ΓG s11e | + |ΓL s22b | + |ΓL s22e | +
|ΓG ΓL |(|s11b s22b | + |s11e s22e | + |s12b s21b | + |s12e s21e |) (5.11)
where ΓG and ΓL are the test port reflection coefficients, s11b , s11e , s22b , s22e , s12b ,
s12e , s21b and s21e are the reflection and transmission coefficients of DUT before
and after the DUT attenuation or phase changes.
The mismatch error in differential phase-shift measurements is assumed to be
uniformly distributed in [− lim ǫd , lim ǫd ]. Thus the standard uncertainty due to
mismatch is
lim ǫd
um = √ (5.12)
3
98
Insertion phase-shift measurement
For insertion phase-shift measurement, the mismatch error can be derived as

(1 − ΓG s11 )(1 − ΓL s22 ) − ΓG ΓL s12 s21
ǫI = arg
1 − ΓG ΓL
≈ arg {1 − ΓG s11 − ΓL s22 + ΓG ΓL (s11 s22 − s12 s21 + 1)} (5.13)
The approximation in the above equation is made since the reflection coefficients
of the test port and DUT all have small magnitude values, which are much less
than 1. Let
Ed′ = 1 − ΓG s11 − ΓL s22 + ΓG ΓL (s11 s22 − s12 s21 + 1) (5.14)
and
Ep′ = −ΓG s11 − ΓL s22 + ΓG ΓL (s11 s22 − s12 s21 + 1) (5.15)
Thus
ǫI = arg(Ed′ ) = arg(1 + Ep′ ) (5.16)
For arbitrary phases of the coefficients, the magnitude of Ep′ is at its maximum
value when all of the vectors have the same directions, i.e.,
lim |Ep′ | = |ΓG s11 | + |ΓL s22 | + |ΓG ΓL |(|s11 s22 | + |s12 s21 | + 1) (5.17)
Similarly, the maximum ǫI will occur when |Ep′ | is at its maximum and the vector
Ep′ is perpendicular to Ed′ , as shown in Fig. 5.3. Thus the error limit of the phase
angle in (5.13) can be derived as
sin(lim ǫI ) = |ΓG s11 | + |ΓL s22 | + |ΓG ΓL |(|s11 s22 | + |s12 s21 | + 1) (5.18)
The mismatch error in insertion phase-shift measurements is assumed to be
uniformly distributed in [− lim ǫI , lim ǫI ] and the standard uncertainty due to mis-
match can be derived as

lim ǫI
um = √ (5.19)
3
99
Eǯd Eǯp
lim İI
– lim İI
1
Figure 5.3: Maximum error due to mismatch in insertion phase-shift measurement.
5.3.6 Combined and Expanded Uncertainty
The measurement repeatability of coaxial step attenuator with PC 3.5 mm con-
nector is obtained using (3.16). The uncertainties due to IVD phase error, receiver
fluctuation, phase drift, mismatch error, GBA uncertainty and measurement re-
peatability are combined using root-sum-of-the-squares method to yield the stan-
dard uncertainty:
sX
us = ( u2i ) (5.20)
i
The expanded uncertainty is
Us = kus (5.21)
where k is the coverage factor and k = 2. Table 5.1 gives the phase-shift measure-
ment uncertainty budget for a 0–140 dB coaxial step attenuator at 18 GHz.
100
5.4. Phase-shift Measurement of a 0–140 dB Step Attenuator
Table 5.1: Uncertainty budget for differential phase-shift measurement of a 0–140
dB coaxial step attenuator at 18 GHz (uncertainty components are estimated in
degrees).
Uncertainty Norminal Incremental Attenuation (dB)

Component 0 - 40 40 - 90 90 - 110 110 - 120 120 - 130 130 - 140
IVD phase error 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.012

Mismatch error 0.030 0.030 0.030 0.030 0.030 0.030
Receiver fluctuation
0.012 0.012 0.017 0.021 0.041 0.12
and Noise
Phase drift 0.023 0.023 0.023 0.023 0.023 0.023
GBA phase-shift
0.000 0.044 0.071 0.071 0.071 0.071
uncertainty
Repeatability 0.016 0.038 0.038 0.021 0.019 0.063
Combined
0.044 0.071 0.091 0.087 0.093 0.16
uncertainty
Expanded
0.088 0.14 0.18 0.17 0.19 0.32
uncertainty (k=2)
5.4 Phase-shift

Measurement

of a 0–140

dB Step

Attenuator

5.4.1 Measurement Results

Two 0-90 dB coaxial step
attenuators
with
PC 3.5
mm connectors
are connected

in series to form a 0–140 dB synthesized step attenuator. The two step attenuators
are called DU T1 and DU T2 . 140 dB attenuation is obtained by setting DU T1 to 90
dB and setting DU T2 to 50 dB. We have measured the differential phase-shift of
the synthesized step attenuator from 0 dB to 140 dB in 10 dB step at 18 GHz. The
measurement results and their expanded uncertainties (k=2) are listed in Table
5.2. Six measurements are made for each attenuation step.
101
5.4. Phase-shift Measurement of a 0–140 dB Step Attenuator
Table 5.2: Differential phase-shift measurement results of a 0–140 dB synthesized
coaxial step attenuator at 18 GHz
DUT1 Nominal DUT2 Nominal Total Nominal Mean measured Expanded

Attenuation Attenuation Attenuation differential Measurement
phase-shift Uncertainty
(dB) (dB) (dB) (Degree) (Degree)
0-10 0-0 0-10 -20.07 0.09
0-20 0-0 0-20 -7.20 0.09
0-30 0-0 0-30 -27.43 0.09
0-40 0-0 0-40 -21.27 0.09
0-50 0-0 0-50 -8.28 0.14
0-60 0-0 0-60 -28.65 0.14
0-70 0-0 0-70 -22.89 0.14
0-80 0-0 0-80 -9.85 0.14
0-90 0-0 0-90 -30.19 0.14
0-90 0-10 0-100 -51.11 0.18
0-90 0-20 0-110 -38.43 0.18
0-90 0-30 0-120 -59.25 0.17
0-90 0-40 0-130 -51.90 0.19
0-90 0-50 0-140 -39.45 0.32
5.4.2 Investigation of Leakage Error
The differential phase-shift of the step attenuator DU T2 from 0 dB to 50 dB is
measured in 10 dB steps at 18 GHz, with DU T1 set to 90 dB and inserted between
port 1 and DU T2 . The results, the uncertainties and deviation from the calibration
value are shown in Table 5.3. When DU T2 is set to 50 dB, the total attenuation
between the test ports is 140 dB. The calibration values for the differential phase-
shift of DU T2 from 0 dB to 50 dB in 10 dB steps are given in Table 5.4. The
deviations are smaller than the sum of the corresponding uncertainty for each
attenuation step listed in Table 5.3 and Table 5.4. Thus the leakage effect in
phase-shift measurement at 18 GHz for total attenuation up to 140 dB can be
considered negligible compared to the noise effect.
102
5.5. Microwave Phase-Shift Reference Standard
Table 5.3: Differential phase-shift measurement results of DU T2 from 0 dB to 50
dB at 18 GHz, with DU T1 set to 90 dB and inserted between port 1 and DU T2 .
DUT1 Nominal DUT2 Nominal Mean measured Expanded Deviation from

Attenuation Attenuation differential Measurement Calibration
phase-shift Uncertainty Value
(dB) (dB) (Degree) (Degree) (Degree)
90 0-10 -20.92 0.13 0.13
90 0-20 -8.23 0.13 0.05
90 0-30 -29.06 0.11 0.15
90 0-40 -21.71 0.13 0.11
90 0-50 -9.26 0.31 0.22
Table 5.4: Calibration value for the differential phase-shift of DU T2 from 0 dB to
50 dB at 18 GHz
DUT2 Nominal Calibrated Expanded
Attenuation differential Measurement
phase-shift Uncertainty
(dB) (Degree) (Degree)
0-10 -21.05 0.09
0-20 -8.28 0.09
0-30 -29.21 0.09
0-40 -21.82 0.09
0-50 -9.48 0.14
5.5 Microwave Phase-Shift Reference Standard
Beadless coaxial air line has been used as precision impedance reference standard
[65, 173]. Such air lines are nearly reflectionless and have very low insertion loss.
They can be used as phase-shift reference standard to verify our dual-channel phase-
shift measurement system [63, 64, 69].
A coaxial line can be characterised using a circuit model involving series resis-
tance R, series inductance L, shunt conductance G and shunt capacitance C, per
unit length of the line. If the air line is assumed to be lossless, R = 0 and G = 0.
The lossless series inductance L0 is given by
µ loge (b/a)
L0 = (5.22)
2π
103
and the lossless shunt capacitance C0 is given by
2πǫ
C0 = (5.23)
loge (b/a)
where µ is the permeability of the line’s dielectric, ǫ is the permittivity of the line’s
dielectric, a is the radius of line’s center conductor and b is the radius of line’s
outer conductor. Fig. 5.4 shows the cross-section of an air line. For a 7 mm air
line, a = 1.5 mm and b = 3.5 mm.
µ, ε
a
b
Figure 5.4: The cross-section of a beadless air line.
The phase-shift of a lossless air line can be derived from
θ = 2nπ − βl (5.24)
where n is an integer so that θ is within (−π, π), l is the measured length of the
air line, and

√
p ǫr
β = 2πf L0 C0 = 2πf (5.25)
c
where c is the speed of light, c ≈ 299792458 m/s, and ǫr is the relative permittivity
of air at 23o C, ǫr ≈ 1.000649.
It has been shown in [63,64,69] that air line loss need to be considered to estimate
the actual phase constant βL and phase-shift θL . The propagation constant of a
lossy air line is

p
γ = α + jβL = (R + jωL)(G + jωC) (5.26)
104
where α is the attenuation constant. The following expressions for the R, L, G
and C have been derived in [174] using first-order approximations:
k 2 a2 F 0

R = 2ωL0 d0 1 − (5.27)
2
k 2 a2 F 0

L = L0 1 + 2d0 1 − (5.28)
2
G = ωC0 d0 k 2 a2 F0 (5.29)
C = C0 (1 + d0 k 2 a2 F0 ) (5.30)
where
2π
k= (5.31)
λ
and
(b2 /a2 ) − 1 (b/a) loge (b/a) a + b
F0 = − − (5.32)
2 loge (b/a) (b/a) + 1 2a
δs (1 + (b/a))
d0 = (5.33)
4b loge (b/a)
The term δs is called the skin depth and is given by

r
2ρ
δs = (5.34)
ωµ
where ρ is the resistivity of the line’s conductors (Ωm). The attenuation constant
α can be calculated from the transmission coefficient magnitude |s21 | of the air line,
ln|s21 |
α=− (5.35)
l
The |s21 | can be measured accurately by our microwave attenuation measure-
ment system [241]. Based on the first-order approximation of the field equations
105
for a slightly lossy coaxial line (derived by Daywitt [174]), the resistivity ρ of the
air line is related to α as follows [69]:

2
200αb π
ρ≈ (5.36)
1 + b/a µ0 f
where µ0 is the permeability of free space. In [64,69], the resistivity values of 7 mm
air lines are calculated using (5.35) and (5.36) from their measured attenuation
values at 0.05–18 GHz, and it is shown that the frequency dependence in the cal-
culated resistivity values is negligible in this frequency range. Thus the resistivity
estimated by (5.36) is accurate from 0.05 GHz to 18 GHz.
Once ρ is estimated using (5.36), the R, L, G and C of a lossy air line can
be calculated using (5.27)-(5.34). Then βL can be calculated from (5.26) and the
theoretical phase-shift of a lossy air line can be calculated as:
θL = 2nπ − βL l (5.37)
Daywitt [175] has derived the exact principal mode field for a lossy coaxial air
line. In [175], the propagation constant (γ = α + jβL ) of a lossy air line derived by
the exact field solution has been numerically compared to that derived by the first-
order approximations [174]. It is found that, due to the first-order approximations,
the error in the line loss per unit length is around 6.2×10−7 dB/cm and the error in
the phase-shift per unit length is below 3.0×10−9 degrees/cm at 0.05–18 GHz [175].
For an air line (with 7 mm connectors) having a length of ∼10 cm, its attenuation
is around 0.04 dB at 2 GHz and 0.15 dB at 18 GHz. The error in its calculated
loss due to the first-order approximations is only 6.2 × 10−6 dB, which is negligible.
The expanded uncertainty in the calculated phase-shift of such an air line is mainly
due to the line length measurement uncertainty, which is around 0.01◦ at 2 GHz
and 0.13◦ at 18 GHz, respectively. The error in its calculated phase-shift due to the
106
5.6. System Verification using a Beadless Air Line
first-order approximations is below 3.0 × 10−8 degrees, which is much smaller than
the uncertainties due to the line length measurement uncertainty. Therefore, we
can conclude that the error in the calculated line phase-shift due to the first-order
approximations is negligible. The uncertainty in the calculated phase-shift of such
an air line is determined by its length measurement uncertainty.
5.6 System Verification using a Beadless Air Line
A 50 ohm beadless air line fitted with precision 7 mm connectors is used as a phase-
shift reference standard. The length of the air line is measured to be 99.9017 mm
with expanded uncertainty of 0.0060 mm. This air line has been used to verify the
performance of the phase-shift measurement system. The air line attenuation has
been measured to be 0.038 dB and 0.152 dB at 2 GHz and 18 GHz, respectively.
The calculated phase-shift of the air line at 2 GHz and 18 GHz using (5.37) and the
associated uncertainty due to the line length measurement uncertainty are listed
in Table 5.5.
For insertion phase-shift measurement at frequencies above 2 GHz, connector
and cable movement errors are more significant and need to be included in the un-
certainty budget. The standard uncertainty due to connector and cable movement
errors is estimated to be 0.012◦ at 2 GHz and 0.087◦ at 18 GHz. Table 5.5 also
shows the measured phase-shift of the air line at 2 GHz and 18 GHz and their
expanded measurement uncertainties. The differences between the measured and
the calculated phase-shift values of the airline are smaller than the corresponding
measurement uncertainties. The comparisons in Table 5.5 show that the measured
phase-shift values agree with the calculated values within the expanded measure-
ment uncertainties.
107
5.7. Summary
Table 5.5: Measured and calculated phase-shift of a beadless air line with 7 mm
connector at 2 GHz and 18 GHz.
Mean Expanded Difference

Calculated Expanded
Measured Uncertainty for between
Frequency Insertion Uncertainty for
Insertion Measured Measured and
Phase-shift Calculated Value
Phase-shift Value Calculated Value
(GHz) (Degree) (Degree) (Degree) (Degree) (Degree)
2 119.73 0.05 119.74 0.01 -0.01

18 -1.23 0.19 -1.11 0.13 -0.12
5.7 Summary
A novel dual-channel heterodyne phase-shift measurement system from 50 MHz to
18 GHz has been proposed. The measurement uncertainty of the proposed system
is analysed. Phase measurement uncertainty of 0.09◦ –0.32◦ has been achieved at 18
GHz for an attenuator with attenuation of 0–140 dB. The phase-shift measurement
uncertainties at 18 GHz are about 106 times smaller than that of VNA for a 100
dB attenuator.
A coaxial beadless air line has been used as a phase-shift standard to verify the
measurement system. The calculated phase-shift with consideration of the line’s
insertion loss agrees with the measured values within the measurement uncertain-
ties. Beadless air lines and variable attenuators can be measured by our proposed
phase-shift measurement system with high accuracy and provide traceability for
microwave phase-shift measurement. The dual-channel heterodyne receivers pro-
posed in this chapter can also be used for precision phase measurement in other
applications.
108
Chapter 6
Millimeter-wave Attenuation
Precision Measurement
6.1 Introduction
A single-channel IF substitution attenuation measurement system at 75–117 GHz
was proposed in [211]. A calibrated IF attenuator was used as the reference at-
tenuation standard. The systematic error and random error are ±0.3 dB and
±0.1 dB, respectively, for measurement of 50 dB attenuation at 75–117 GHz using
this system. A single-channel RF substitution attenuation measurement system
at 75–110 GHz was proposed in [210], which used a video detector to reduce the
system cost. A calibrated RVA was used as the reference attenuation standard at
millimetre-wave frequencies. The DR of the system is about 97 dB with an averag-
ing of 1.7 minutes to reduce the noise floor. An attenuation measurement system
using single-channel harmonic mixing heterodyne receiver was developed in [209].
The DR of this system is 61 dB at 210 GHz, 32 dB at 350 GHz and 29 dB at
420 GHz. This system did not use any attenuation standard to provide traceable
109
6.1. Introduction
measurement of millimetre-wave attenuation.
A dual-channel heterodyne measurement system is used in a VNA for attenua-
tion measurement. A main channel receiver is used for attenuation measurement
and a reference channel receiver is used to provide a reference IF signal for VNA
calibration and synchronous detection. The reference IF signal is used to phase-
lock the LO in two vector receivers, which down-convert the main and reference IF
signals to a lower frequency for coherent detection [168]. A VNA has been used to
measure a 30 dB attenuator with an expanded uncertainty of 0.33 dB at 110 GHz,
0.23 dB at 220 GHz and 0.78 dB at 330 GHz, respectively [122–124].
leads to random deviations between the instantaneous frequency of the IF signal
and the LO in the vector receivers. Such random deviations behave like a phase
noise effect which increases the noise floor in the synchronous detection. A VNA has
a receiver noise floor of about −125 dBm and a typical attenuation measurement
DR of 100 dB at 330–500 GHz (with 10 Hz IF bandwidth) [217, 223, 224]. The
noise floor of the VNA restricts its DR in attenuation measurement.
has been developed with expanded uncertainties of 0.004–0.13 dB for a measure-
ment range up to 80 dB [117]. This measurement standard can provide traceability
for attenuation measurement at 60 GHz, which is important for wireless communi-
cations [103, 104]. New techniques need to be developed for attenuation measure-
ment at higher frequencies (beyond 75 GHz) with improved DR beyond 150 dB.
A RVA calibrated by such a dedicated millimeter-wave attenuation measurement
system can serve as an attenuation reference standard to provide traceability in
linearity for millimeter-wave waveguide power meters, spectrum analyzers, VNA
and radiometers.
110
6.1. Introduction
In this chapter, we will investigate the development of attenuation measure-
ment system at 75–110 GHz, 140–220 GHz and 330–500 GHz, respectively. These
frequency bands have many important applications in radar, communications and
security imaging [37, 96, 105–108, 189, 194]. Our proposed dual-channel AF substi-
tution systems for millimeter-wave attenuation measurement are traceable to an
IVD [25] which is a voltage-ratio reference standard at 5.02 kHz. In our proposed
design, the main channel AF signal is detected by a LIA. The LIA employs a co-
herent frequency reference signal at 5.02 kHz (provided by the reference channel
receiver) to detect the main channel AF signal with low SNR. The deviations be-
tween the instantaneous frequency of the main channel and reference channel AF
signal are negligible since they are generated from the same microwave source and
LO. The phase noise effect in the receiver is essentially removed, which ensures
that the synchronous detection by the LIA has much better sensitivity.
The system has been verified using several precision RVAs. The DR of these
novel measurement systems is much better than that of a VNA. The measurement
uncertainties for a 30 dB attenuator are estimated to be 0.016 dB at 110 GHz, 0.024
dB at 220 GHz and 0.078 dB at 480 GHz, respectively, which are much smaller
than that of a VNA. The DR of the proposed system is 58 dB higher than that of
a VNA at around 220 GHz.
It has been very difficult to estimate the leakage error in high attenuation mea-
surement since the leakage signal can not be separated from the noise [117]. We
have proposed a new method to evaluate the leakage errors in attenuation mea-
surement for devices with high attenuation. This is critical for reliable estimation
of the measurement accuracy in high DR measurement.
The frequency bands at 75–110 GHz (WR-10 band), 140–220 GHz (WR-05
band) and 330–500 GHz (WR-2.2 band) have been selected to study the measure-
111
6.2. Attenuation Measurement System at 75–110 GHz
ment accuracy and receiver noise effect at increasing frequencies within 75–500
GHz. Measurement uncertainty analysis performed at the selected bands will show
the mismatch error, leakage error and phase-noise induced instability effect. The
analysis can help to predict the performance of dual-channel attenuation measure-
ment system at other frequency bands within 50–500 GHz. Although the phase
noise in the source increases significantly from 75 GHz to 500 GHz, the noise floor
in our proposed receivers at WR-10, WR-05 and WR-2.2 band remains at around
−169 dBm. This shows that our design can suppress the phase noise effect in the
receiver noise. Therefore an attenuation measurement system using our proposed
dual-channel receivers at other frequencies within 50–500 GHz is expected to have
a similar noise floor level. As the frequency increases from 75 GHz to 500 GHz,
the source output power level decreases which causes the system DR to decrease
from 175 dB to 152 dB.
6.2 Attenuation Measurement System at 75–110
GHz
6.2.1 System design
A block diagram of the attenuation measurement system in waveguide band WR10
(75–110 GHz) is shown in Fig. 6.1. A microwave signal (12.5−18.33 GHz) drives
a multiplier (×6) to generate a signal in 75–110 GHz. The signal level at test port
1 is about 5 dBm at 110 GHz. Two subharmonic mixers are used to down-convert
the millimeter-wave signal to a main and a reference intermediate frequency (IF)
signal at 3.2 GHz, respectively. The frequency of LO source 1 is set to fLO which
satisfies (fRF − fLO ) × 6 = 3.2 GHz, where fRF is the frequency of the RF source.
112
RF Source Port 1 Port 2

DUT
(12.5 - 18.33 GHz ) Main Subharmonic
Isolator A Isolator B
Mixer
Level Set Matching Matching
X6
Attenuator Pad A Pad B
LO IF (3.2 GHz)
Ref Subharmonic LO X3
X3 Splitter
Mixer
IF (3.2 GHz) BP Filter

LO1
BP Filter RF AF (5.02 kHz)
Main RF Mixer
Attenuator LO LP Filter
RF
Pre-Amp
LO
Ref RF Mixer
LO Source 2
Isolator Isolator Isolator Isolator (3.20000502 GHz) IVD
10 MHz
Reference
AF (5.02 kHz)
Reference (5.02 kHz) Lock-in
LP Filter Pre-Amp
Amp
Figure 6.1: Block diagram of a dual-channel millimeter-wave attenuation measure-
ment system in 75–110 GHz.
The main and reference IF signals go through BP filters which are used to
suppress the harmonic signals. The IF signals are further down-converted by two
RF mixers to AF signals at 5.02 kHz. The cut-off frequency of the LP filter is 100
kHz. The reference AF signal provides a frequency reference to the LIA to ensure
accurate measurement of the main AF signal. An IVD is used as a traceable voltage
ratio reference standard with an accuracy of a few parts in 106 . The voltage ratio
of the millimeter-wave signal can be derived from the IVD voltage ratio at 5.02
kHz.
The phase noise of the millimeter-wave source will be translated to the IF signal,
which will cause significant fluctuation in LIA reading if the non-coherent frequency
reference signal is used for the LIA. To stabilize the LIA reading for accurate
attenuation measurement, the coupled millimeter-wave signal is down-converted to
an AF signal, which is used as the external frequency reference of the LIA. The LIA
reading in our measurement system is very stable and the standard uncertainty due
113
to receiver fluctuation in measurement of a 10 dB attenuator is about 0.001 dB.
RF isolators are placed between the main and reference RF mixers to reduce the
leakage signal introduced by the reference channel [242].
A waveguide level-set attenuator (LSA) is used to control the signal level at the
receiver input and avoid compression error in the main subharmonic mixer and the
RF mixer. The isolator in the source side and receiver side are used to reduce the
reflection from the multiplier and the main subharmonic mixer, respectively. Two
matching pads (waveguide attenuators) are used to reduce the mismatch error in
the attenuation measurement.
6.2.2 Measurement method
The DUT is usually a variable waveguide attenuator. Attenuation from 0.01 dB
to 50 dB can be measured using the direct measurement method described in 3.2
with a LSA of 20 dB.
For a DUT with attenuation higher than 50 dB, an indirect measurement method
described in 3.2 is used. A variable 0–50 dB GBA is inserted between the Isolator
A and the Matching Pad A (shown in Fig. 6.1), and the LSA is removed. The
system can accurately measure the attenuation of a DUT up to 100 dB.
6.2.3 Measurement Uncertainty Analysis
IVD error
A seven decade IVD is used as the voltage ratio reference standard. The maximum
error in attenuation due to the IVD ratio error is obtained using (3.5). The error
is assumed to have a rectangular distribution in [−eIV D , eIV D ], and the standard
114
uncertainty due to the IVD error (uIV D ) is estimated by
eIV D
uIV D = √ . (6.1)
3
The uIV D is estimated to be 0.0004 dB, 0.0008 dB and 0.002 dB for measurement
of attenuation in 0−30 dB, 30−40 dB and 40−50 dB, respectively.
For a DUT beyond 50 dB, indirect measurement is made by comparing the DUT
to a 50 dB GBA. Thus uIV D for measurement of attenuation in 50–80 dB, 80–90 dB
and 90–100 dB is estimated to be 0.0004 dB, 0.0008 dB and 0.002 dB, respectively.
Receiver nonlinearity
The nonlinearity of the subharmonic mixer, the RF mixer and the pre-amplifier
is an important uncertainty factor in AF substitution attenuation measurement
systems [140,229]. The signal level at the subharmonic mixer millimeter-wave input
has to be at least 30 dB below the LO level to achieve the smallest nonlinearity
error. For measurement of low attenuation, a waveguide LSA is used to ensure the
mixers are operating in the linear region.
The nonlinearity of the receiver is checked by repeated measurement of a 0–10 dB
incremental attenuation at deceasing subharmonic mixer input levels. A precision
RVA can be used as a reference waveguide attenuation standard [155, 158]. A RVA
with a 10 dB attenuator connected at each port is used as the DUT to provide the
0–10 dB attenuation with very good repeatability. When the DUT is set to 0 dB,
the LSA is adjusted to reduce the initial signal level at subharmonic mixer input
from −35 dBm to −95 dBm in 10 dB step. The DUT is measured eight times at
each signal level and the measurements are listed in Table 6.1. The measurement
repeatability for each signal level is obtained using (3.16).
The measurement values obtained at initial mixer input level from −35 dBm
115
Table 6.1: Measurement of the nonlinearity and leakage error of the attenuation
measurement system at 110 GHz
DUT Nominal Mean Measured Deviation from

Subharmonic Mixer Repeatability Reference
Attenuation Incremental Reference Value
Input Level (dBm) (dB) Value (dB)
Step (dB) Attenuation (dB) (dB)
-35 ~ -45 0-10 9.9652 0.0009 9.9658 -0.0006
-45 ~ -55 0-10 9.9660 0.0009 9.9658 0.0002
-55 ~ -65 0-10 9.9655 0.0016 9.9658 -0.0003
-65 ~ -75 0-10 9.9672 0.0015 9.9658 0.0013
-75 ~ -85 0-10 9.9653 0.0011 9.9658 -0.0005
-85 ~ -95 0-10 9.9238 0.0050 9.9658 -0.042
-95 ~ -105 0-10 9.8828 0.0080 9.9658 -0.083
to −75 dBm are averaged to obtain the reference value (9.9658 dB), and their
maximum deviation from the reference value is eLIN = 0.0013 dB. The nonlinearity
error is assumed to have a rectangular distribution in [−eLIN , eLIN ]. The standard
uncertainty due to nonlinearity error is estimated to be
eLIN
uLIN = √ = 0.0008 dB. (6.2)
3
The increased deviations from the reference value at mixer input level of −85 dBm
and −95 dBm are due to the millimeter-wave leakage error and receiver noise.
Mismatch uncertainty
Mismatch error is a dominant uncertainty factor in low attenuation measurement.
The standard mismatch uncertainty for a variable attenuator can be estimated from
using (3.7 ) [228]. Mismatch uncertainty is the dominant uncertainty component
for measurement of attenuation from 0.01 dB to 40 dB. For a DUT below 50 dB,
two 10 dB matching pads are used. Two 3 dB matching pads are used for DUT
beyond 50 dB. The upper limit of uM for the RVA at 110 GHz is 0.0076 dB for the
attenuation range below 50 dB and 0.010 dB for the attenuation range from 50 dB
to 100 dB, respectively.
116
Receiver fluctuation and noise
The detected signal by the LIA has small fluctuation in amplitude during mea-
surement. Such fluctuation will lead to some uncertainty in the attenuation mea-
surement since the IVD ratio setting is determined by the LIA voltage reading.
The dual-channel system uses a coherent frequency reference for the LIA, which
significantly reduces the fluctuation due to phase noise effect [81,236,243,244]. For
high attenuation measurement, receiver fluctuation is mainly due to the thermal
noise effect in the mixers, pre-amplifier and the LIA. For attenuation measurement
in 80−100 dB, the LIA receiver bandwidth is set to 0.06 Hz to reduce the random
noise effect.
The maximum error in attenuation due to the fluctuation and noise is obtained
from (3.9). The error due to fluctuation and noise is assumed to have a rectangular
distribution in [−en , en ]. The standard uncertainty due to receiver fluctuation and
noise can be estimated by

en
uN = √ (6.3)
3
The uN ranges from 0.001 dB to 0.02 dB as DUT attenuation increases from 10
dB to 100 dB, as listed in Table 6.3.
Leakage error
Millimeter-wave and RF leakage is a dominating uncertainty component for mea-
surement of high attenuation above 80 dB. The leakage error can be determined
by a measurement experiment. The linearity test result has indicated that there
is no leakage error for measurement of DUT attenuation from 0 to 50 dB at 110
GHz. Thus a 0–50 dB RVA (referred to as RVA1 ) is first measured by the system
to get the reference values for the 0–50 dB attenuation setting in 10 dB step. The
117
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RVA1 is measured again with another RVA (set to 50 dB attenuation step, referred
)*+#,..
to as RVA2 ) cascade-connected with it. In this case, the 4,5*-
)1- 2,-+# .,3 6
total inserted nominal
7% 778%9:$ 7787%;%;: <%8%;$= <%8%7:>
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attenuation value between the test ports becomes 7787%;%;:
60, 70, 80, 90 and 100 dB as the
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The deviation of eL = 0.067 dB when the total nominal incremental attenua-
tion is 50–100 dB is due to the leakage error, thus the standard uncertainty due
to leakage for measurement of 100 dB attenuator at 110 GHz is estimated to be
uL = eL /2 = 0.033 dB assuming the leakage error of 0.067 dB is a type B mea-
surement uncertainty with a coverage factor of k = 2 [135]. Similarly the standard
uncertainty due to leakage for measurement of 90 dB and 80 dB attenuator are =?8$9@ 7%8
=?8$9@ ;%8
estimated to be 0.011 dB and 0.0031 dB respectively at 110 GHz. When the total =?8$9@ >%8
=?8$9@ =%8
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nominal incremental attenuation is 60 and 70 dB, the deviations in Table 6.2 are
quite small and should be due to the receiver noise and mismatch uncertainties.
Therefore this experiment shows that the leakage error is negligible for measure-
ment of 60 dB and 70 dB attenuators.
Table 6.2: Measurement of the leakage error in the attenuation measurement sys-
tem at 110 GHz
RVA1 Measured Deviation from

RVA1 Nominal Total Incremental
Reference Attenuation of RVA1 RVA1 Reference
Attenuation Nominal
Attenuation with connection of Attenuation
Step (dB) Attenuation (dB)
Value (dB) RVA2 at 50 dB (dB) Value (dB)
0-10 50-60 10.003 10.000 -0.003

0-20 50-70 20.018 20.016 -0.002
0-30 50-80 30.041 30.047 0.006
0-40 50-90 39.988 40.010 0.022
0-50 50-100 50.036 50.103 0.067
118
GBA calibration uncertainty
Calibration of an attenuator in the range beyond 50 dB is derived indirectly by
comparing the attenuation of the device to that of a 50 dB GBA. The GBA has
been calibrated previously. Thus the GBA calibration standard uncertainty (uGBA )
should be included in the uncertainty budget components for the measurement of
attenuation beyond 50 dB.
DUT repeatability
A RVA has an inherent repeatability error due to the dial resettability which in-
creases as the attenuation becomes higher [155, 158]. Two cascade-connected pre-
cision RVAs (referred to as RVA1 and RVA2 ) with 0–50 dB attenuation in each
RVA are used to form a 0–100 dB synthesized variable attenuator (SVA), which
is used in the measurement experiment to estimate the DUT repeatability. Eight
measurements are made at each attenuation step. The standard uncertainty due
to DUT repeatability (uR ) is estimated to be 0.0008 – 0.01 dB for the attenuation
range from 10 dB to 100 dB, as given in Table 6.3.
Combined and expanded uncertainty
The standard uncertainty components include the IVD error, nonlinearity, mis-
match uncertainty, receiver fluctuation and noise, leakage, GBA calibration uncer-
tainty and DUT repeatability, which are listed in Table 6.3. These uncertainty
components are combined using root-sum-of-the-squares method to yield the stan-
dard system uncertainty

q
uc = u2IV D + u2LIN + u2M + u2N + u2L + u2GBA + u2R (6.4)
119
The expanded uncertainty is obtained by
U = k uc (6.5)
where k is the coverage factor and k = 2 [135]. The combined uncertainty (uc ) and
the expanded uncertainty (U ) for measurement of a 0–100 dB SVA at 110 GHz are
listed in Table 6.3.
Table 6.3: Uncertainty estimation for measurement of a 0–100 dB SVA at 110 GHz
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&) ) 0 ' '
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#$%&' 0 0 ' )
6.2.4 Measurement of Attenuation up to 100 dB
The SVA is measured at 10–100 dB in 10 dB step at 110 GHz to verify the perfor-
mance of the system. Eight measurements are made at each attenuation step and
the results are given in Table 6.4. The nominal attenuation values from 60 dB to
100 dB are measured indirectly by comparing to a 50 dB GBA with a calibrated
incremental attenuation of 49.678 dB at 110 GHz. The expanded uncertainty for
0–100 dB attenuation measurement is 0.016–0.084 dB at 110 GHz.
The accuracy specification of each RVA in the 10–50 dB range is 1% of the
nominal attenuation value, hence the accuracy of the SVA is about 1% in 10–50
120
!"#$%#&'(#)*+,-.*/0
dB and 2% in 50–100 dB. Table 6.4 shows that, at each )*+#,..
attenuation step, the
)1- 2,-+# .,3 4,5*- 6
7% measured
deviation of the mean 778%9:$ value from the nominal
7787%;%;:
value<%8%;$= <%8%7:>
is less than 1% of
;% 778%?@ 7787%;%;: <%8%%=% !"!!#$
>%
the nominal incremental 778%??7
attenuation. A calibrated7787%;%;: serve as a!"!!%&
RVA can <%8%%;? reference
=% 778779 7787%;%;: %8%7:% !"!!'(
:% 778%?= 7787%;%;: <%8%%@% !"!!)(
waveguide attenuation standard in 75–110 GHz to provide traceability in linearity
$% 778%@@ 7787%;%;: <%8%7=% !"!!'%
9%
for other millimeter-wave 7787=
instruments and systems.7787%;%;: %8%>@% %8%;7?
@% 778%@ 7787%;%;: <%8%;;% <%8%7;9
?% 7%8?@ 7787%;%;: <%87;;% <%8%9%:
Table 6.4: Measurement results of a 0–100 dB SVA at 110 GHz
RVA1 Nominal RVA2 Nominal Nominal Total Mean Measured Expanded

0-10 0-0 10 10.003 0.016

0-20 0-0 20 20.018 0.016
0-30 0-0 30 30.041 0.016
0-40 0-0 40 39.988 0.016
0-50 0-0 50 50.036 0.019
0-10 0-50 60 59.678 0.029 =?8$9@ 7%
0-20 0-50 70 69.694 0.029 =?8$9@ ;%
0-30 0-50 80 79.725 0.030 =?8$9@ >%
0-40 0-50 90 89.688 0.045 =?8$9@ =%
0-50 0-50 100 99.781 0.084 =?8$9@ :%
6.2.5 Improvement of Receiver Dynamic Range
To improve the measurement dynamic range, a low-noise amplifier with a noise
figure of 0.5 dB is used to improve the SNR for high attenuation measurement.
The LIA time constant is set to 5 s.
Let xk and yk (k = 1, 2, ..., 240) denotes the real and imaginary part of the com-
plex data detected by LIA in 4 minutes with one sample per second, the smoothed
samples z̄i (i = 1, 2, ..., 121) are obtained by

v !2 !2
u 1 i+119 i+119
u
X 1 X
z̄i = t xk + yk , i = 1, 2, ..., 121 (6.6)
120 k=i 120 k=i
Each sample in z̄i (i = 1, 2, ..., 121) is obtained by averaging the complex data
measured by the LIA in 120 s. The measurement of high attenuation is based
121
on the value of z̄i which has reduced the effect of random noise. The mean of
the smoothed signal magnitude using (6.6) is s = 267.05 µV (with a maximum
fluctuation of n1 = 0.97 µV ), when the total insertion loss between the test ports
is 104 dB at 110 GHz. Thus the SNR in LIA measurement after smoothing using
(6.6) is estimated to be
s
SN R = 20 log10 ≈ 69 (dB). (6.7)
n1
The measurement dynamic range (DR) at 110 GHz can be estimated as
DR = A12 + SN R ≈ 104 + 69 = 173 dB (6.8)
The signal level at port 1 is 5 dBm at 110 GHz and the noise floor at receiver input
(port 2) is estimated to be
Nf ≈ 5 dBm − 173 dB = −168 dBm. (6.9)
6.3 Attenuation Measurement System at 140–220
GHz
6.3.1 Measurement System
A block diagram of the 140–220 GHz attenuation measurement system is shown in
Fig. 6.2. A microwave signal (11.67–18.33 GHz) drives a multiplier chain (×12)
to generate a signal in 140–220 GHz. The signal level at Port 1 is about −6 dBm.
Two subharmonic mixers are used to down-convert the millimeter-wave signal to
a main and a reference IF signal at 2.5 GHz, respectively. The frequency of the
local oscillator (LO1 ) is set to fLO which satisfies (fRF − fLO ) × 12 = 2.5 GHz,
122
where fRF is the frequency of the RF source. The main IF signal goes through
a BP filter with a 3 dB bandwidth of 12.5 MHz. A microwave amplifier with a
noise figure of 8 dB at 2.5 GHz is used to amplify the IF signal. The reference AF
signal provides a frequency reference to the LIA to stabilize the LIA reading. The
standard uncertainty due to receiver noise in measurement of a 30 dB attenuator is
about 0.004 dB. A waveguide LSA is used to control the signal level at the receiver
input and minimize the compression error in the main subharmonic mixer and the
RF mixer. The isolator and matching pad in the source side and receiver side are
used to reduce the reflection from the multiplier chain and the main subharmonic
mixer, respectively.
5)6RXUFH '87
*+] 3RUW 3RUW
,VRODWRU$ 0DLQ6XEKDUPRQLF
,VRODWRU%
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Figure 6.2: Block diagram of a 140–220 GHz attenuation measurement system
using dual-channel superheterodyne receivers
DUT attenuation of up to 60 dB can be measured using the direct measurement
method described in 3.2, using a matching pad of 6 dB at each side of the DUT.
DUT attenuation beyond 60 dB is obtained using the indirect measurement method
(described in 3.2) using a 0–60 dB variable attenuator as the GBA and the matching
pad at each side of the DUT is 3 dB.
123
6.3.2 Receiver Linearity
The receiver nonlinearity is checked by repeated measurement of a 10 dB incre-
mental attenuation at deceasing subharmonic mixer input levels. A precision RVA
with a 10 dB attenuator connected at each port is used as the DUT to provide
the 10 dB attenuation with good repeatability. When the DUT is set to 0 dB, the
)*+#,.. LSA cascade-connected with another variable attenuator are adjusted to reduce the
4,5*- 6 1+. 3
7%;%;: <%8%;$= <%8%7:>
initial signal level at subharmonic mixer input from −53 dBm to −133 dBm in 10
7%;%;: <%8%%=% !"!!#$
7%;%;: <%8%%;? !"!!%&
dB step. The DUT is measured eight times at each signal level and the results are
7%;%;: %8%7:% !"!!'(
7%;%;: <%8%%@% !"!!)(
7%;%;: <%8%7=% listed
!"!!'% in Table 6.5. The measurement repeatability for each signal level is obtained
7%;%;: %8%>@% %8%;7?
7%;%;: <%8%;;% using (3.16). The measurements for initial mixer input level from −53 dBm to
<%8%7;9
7%;%;: <%87;;% <%8%9%:
−103 dBm are averaged to obtain the reference value Ar = 9.9908 dB, and their
maximum deviation from Ar is eLIN = 0.0026 dB. The standard uncertainty due
to nonlinearity is estimated to be
%87;
%8;= √
%8>$= eLIN / 3 = 0.0015 dB.
uLIN (6.10)
%8=@
%8$
The increased deviations from78;the reference value at mixer input level below −113
78=
78$ noise.
dBm are due to the leakage and
78@
;
Table 6.5: Measurement ;8;of the receiver nonlinearity error at 220 GHz
;8=
%!

%$
&
"
&

&

#$

+# :=8%
$#"#& <7=>8> <79:8$ %8%7;: <7?>8% <7?8%>
# # -/#;;%#&'( 124
)E11K1+. 16I'-.2#2*A,.#*3
1*&#FEG,. <7:$
6.3.3 Measurement of Attenuation up to 120 dB
Two cascade-connected precision RVAs (referred to as RVA1 and RVA2 ) with 0–60
dB attenuation in each RVA are used as a 0–120 dB synthesized variable attenuator
(SVA). The attenuation of the SVA is measured at 10–120 dB in 10 dB step at 220
GHz to verify the performance of the attenuation measurement system. Eight mea-
surements are made at each attenuation step and the results are given in Table 6.7.
The measurement uncertainty components include the errors due to IVD, nonlin-
earity, impedance mismatch, receiver fluctuation, noise, leakage, GBA calibration
uncertainty and measurement repeatability. Table 6.6 gives the uncertainty budget
for measurement of the 0–120 dB SVA at 220 GHz.
Table 6.6: Uncertainty estimation for measurement of the 0–120 dB SVA at 220
GHz
&'()!*$
%

#" (( ((
5

( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( (
6
&
3 *( 3( * * 3
7 '
7

6

(( '* 3 ( 3 * *
/

( ('

' * * ** '
!"#$
The standard uncertainty due to receiver noise is about 0.038 dB and 0.12 dB
when the DUT attenuation is 110 dB and 120 dB, respectively. The standard
uncertainty due to mismatch error is estimated to be 0.01 dB and 0.02 dB for
attenuation at 0–60 dB and 60–120 dB, respectively. The calibrated incremental
attenuation of the GBA is 60.843 dB at 220 GHz.
125
The leakage errors in measuring high attenuation values are estimated using the
method described in section 6.2.3. The 0–60 dB RVA1 is first measured by the
system to get the reference values for the 0–60 dB attenuation setting in 10 dB
step. The RVA1 is then measured again with another RVA (set to 60 dB attenuation
step) cascade-connected with it. In this case, the total inserted nominal attenuation
value between the test ports becomes 70, 80, 90, 100, 110 and 120 dB as the RVA1
changes to 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 dB, respectively. The deviations between the
measured and the reference values of RVA1 (0–60 dB) show that there is leakage
error in measurement of attenuation beyond 100 dB. The standard uncertainty due
!"#$%#&'(#)*+,-.*/0
to leakage at 220 GHz is about 0.044 dB, 0.13 dB and 0.37 dB for a DUT with
)*+#,..
)1- 2,-+# .,3 4,5*- 6
100 dB, 110 dB and 7%120 dB attenuation, respectively.
778%9:$
Table 6.7 shows that the
7787%;%;: <%8%;$= <%8%7:>
;% 778%?@ 7787%;%;: <%8%%=% !"!!#$
deviation of the mean>%measured
778%??7 value from the nominal value
7787%;%;: is within
<%8%%;? the 2% of
!"!!%&
=% 778779 7787%;%;: %8%7:% !"!!'(
:% each778%?=
the nominal values for attenuation step. 7787%;%;: <%8%%@% !"!!)(
$% 778%@@ 7787%;%;: <%8%7=% !"!!'%
9% 7787= 7787%;%;: %8%>@% %8%;7?
@% 778%@ 7787%;%;: <%8%;;% <%8%7;9
Table 6.7: Measurement results of a 0–120 dB synthesized rotary vane attenuator
?% 7%8?@ 7787%;%;: <%87;;% <%8%9%:
at 220 GHz
RVA1 Nominal RVA2 Nominal Nominal Total Mean Measured Expanded

0-10 0-0 10 9.983 0.022 %87

0-20 0-0 20 19.971 0.024 %8;
0-30 0-0 30 29.985 0.024 %8>
0-40 0-0 40 40.088 0.027 %8=
0-50 0-0 50 50.165 0.030 %8
0-60 0-0 60 60.994 0.040 78
0-10 0-60 70 70.822 0.063 78
0-20 0-60 80 80.794 0.064 78
0-30 0-60 90 90.817 0.066 78
0-40 0-60 100 100.855 0.11
0-50 0-60 110 110.761 0.27 ;8
0-60 0-60 120 121.093 0.80 ;8
126
A:%%
B C#D##+E*1,#3)EE. -2F#&-*+# :=8%
6.3.4 Receiver Dynamic Range
The LIA time constant is set to 5 s and the equivalent noise bandwidth in the LIA
is 0.024 Hz. The complex data measured by the LIA in 4 minutes (one sample
per second) is averaged to achieve a SNR of about 58 dB when the total insertion
loss between the test ports is 105 dB at 220 GHz. Thus the measurement dynamic
range (DR) at 220 GHz can be estimated as
DR = A12 + SN R ≈ 105 + 58 = 163 dB (6.11)
The signal level at port 1 is −6 dBm at 220 GHz and the noise floor at receiver
input (port 2) is estimated to be
Nf ≈ −6 dBm − 163 dB = −169 dBm. (6.12)
127
6.4. Attenuation measurement System at 330–500 GHz
6.4 Attenuation measurement System at 330–500
GHz
6.4.1 Phase Noise Effect in a Single-channel Measurement
System
A block diagram of a single-channel 330–500 GHz transmission measurement sys-
tem is shown in Fig. 6.3. A microwave signal (13.75–20.83 GHz) from a RF
synthesizer drives a multiplier chain (×24) to generate a signal in 330–500 GHz.
The signal level at Port 1 varies from −18 dBm to −20 dBm at 340–497 GHz,
decreasing to −23 dBm at the edge of the WR–2.2 band. A subharmonic mixer is
used to down-convert the sub-millimeter wave signal to an IF signal at 2.5 GHz.
Another synthesizer is used as the local oscillator (LO1 ) and its frequency is set
to fLO so that (fRF − fLO ) × 24 = 2.5 GHz, where fRF is the frequency of the
RF source. The IF signal goes through a BP filter with a 3 dB bandwidth of 12.5
MHz. A RF mixer is used to down-convert the IF signal to AF at 5.02 kHz which
is detected by a LIA. The cut-off frequency of the LC LP filter is 100 kHz. A BP
filter with a pass-band from 5.01 kHz to 5.03 kHz is used to reduce the noise in
the down-converted AF signal. A 10 dB attenuator is used as the matching pad at
port 1 and port 2 to improve the port match. A function generator provides a 5.02
kHz frequency reference signal for the LIA. A 10 MHz reference signal is used to
synchronize the RF source, LO1 , LO2 and the function generator. Accurate mea-
surement of sub-millimeter wave attenuation relies on the stability of the voltage
magnitude reading of LIA.
In the frequency range closer to the carrier frequency, the flicker noise (also called
1/f noise or phase noise) is more significant [81–83, 235–237, 245]. The phase noise
128
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5)
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*+] %3)LOWHU

,9'
)XQFWLRQ*HQHUDWRU /RFNLQ
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N+] $PS
([W5HIHUHQFHN+]

using single-channel superheterodyne receiver.
of an oscillator increases with its carrier frequency. It has been shown that phase
noise in microwave devices is more meaningful in characterizing the system noise
level than the noise figure which is commonly used [232]. The SSB phase noise at
the output of a ×N frequency multiplier satisfies
LN (f ) = L(f ) + 20 log10 N (dBc/Hz), (6.13)
where L(f ) is the SSB phase noise at the input of the ×N frequency multiplier
[246]. In our system, the sub-millimeter wave signal is obtained by multiplying
the frequency of a microwave signal (13.75–20.83 GHz) by N = 24, thus the phase
noise of the sub-millimeter wave signal at 330–500 GHz is obtained as
LT (f ) = LM (f ) + 20 log10 24 ≈ LM (f ) + 27.6 (dBc/Hz), (6.14)
where LM (f ) and LT (f ) are the SSB phase noises of the microwave synthesizer
and the sub-millimeter wave source, respectively. The phase noises of the LO2
129
drive and the sub-millimeter wave sources are translated to the AF signal at 5.02
kHz after the mixer down-conversion. The phase noise contribution (in AF signal)
from the LO drive of the subharmonic mixer is assumed to be the same as LT (f ).
The random phase jitter of the AF signal has a root-mean-square (RMS) value (in
radians) given by s Z
f2
φj = 2 [2LT (f ) + LLO2 (f )]df . (6.15)
f1
The SSB phase noises of the LO2 drive (2.5 GHz), the microwave synthesizer (13.75–
20.83 GHz) and the sub-millimeter wave source (330–500 GHz) are shown in Fig.
6.4. The 95% confidence interval of the phase of the AF signal is estimated to be
[θ̄ − 174.6◦ , θ̄ + 174.6◦ ] where θ̄ is the mean of the phase (in degrees).
0
2.5 GHz
13.75 − 20.83 GHz
−20 330 − 500 GHz
SSB Phase noise (dBc/Hz)
−40
−60
−80
−100
−120
−140
0 1 2 3 4 5
10 10 10 10 10 10
Frequency offset (Hz)
Figure 6.4: The SSB phase noise of the microwave sources (based on the instrument
specification at 2.5 GHz and 13.75–20.83 GHz) and the calculated phase noise of
the sub-millimeter wave source obtained using (6.14).
The phase of the AF signal has been measured by the LIA with a 5.02 kHz fre-
quency reference from a function generator which is phase-locked to the microwave
130
synthesizers via a 10 MHz signal. Fig. 6.5 shows the measured magnitude and
phase of the AF signal down-converted from a signal at 480 GHz, with 10 dB at-
tenuator inserted between the test ports. The LIA time constant is set to 1 s. The
measured AF signal shows random phase fluctuation from −180◦ to 180◦ , which is
very close to the above theoretical estimation of the phase jitter.
Such a large phase jitter causes significant fluctuation in the magnitude of the
AF signal measured by the LIA. Thus it is very difficult to make accurate attenu-
ation measurement using LIA with a 5.02 kHz frequency reference from a function
generator which is only phase-locked to the microwave synthesizer via a 10 MHz
signal. The LIA requires a coherent frequency reference signal to accurately detect
an AF signal with high phase noise.
131
200
magnitude, microvolt
150
100
50
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
time, s
200
150
100
phase, degree
50
−50
−100
−150
−200
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
time, s
Figure 6.5: The measured magnitude and phase of the AF signal down-converted
from a signal at 480 GHz using the single-channel system, with 10 dB attenuator
inserted between the test ports.
132
6.4.2 Dual-channel Measurement System
To reduce the significant receiver fluctuations caused by the phase noise effect in
single-channel measurement system, a dual-channel measurement system has been
developed. A block diagram of the dual-channel measurement system is shown in
Fig. 6.6. Two subharmonic mixers are used to down-convert the sub-millimeter
wave signals to a main and a reference IF signal at 2.5 GHz, respectively. The
frequency of LO1 is set to fLO so that (fRF − fLO ) × 24 = 2.5 GHz, where fRF is
the frequency of the RF source. The main and reference IF signals go through BP
filters with a 3 dB bandwidth of 12.5 MHz. The cut-off frequency of the LC LP
filter is 100 kHz.

RF Source
Port 1 DUT Port 2 Main Subharmonic
(13.75 – 20.83 GHz )
Mixer
X 24 Waveguide Matching Matching Waveguide IF (2.5 GHz)

Section Pad A Pad B Section
LO BP Filter
Ref Subharmonic LO X 12
X 12 Splitter
Mixer
IF (2.5 GHz)
LO1 RF
BP Filter AF (5.02 kHz)
Main RF Mixer
LO
LP Filter
Attenuator
RF
LO Pre-Amp
Ref RF Mixer
BP Filter
Isolators
10 MHz
Reference LO2 IVD
(2.49999498 GHz)
AF (5.02 kHz)
Lock-in
LP Filter Pre-Amp BP Filter Amp
Ext Reference (5.02 kHz)
Computer
using dual-channel superheterodyne receivers
The reference channel receiver in Fig. 6.6 is used to provide a coherent frequency
reference to the LIA to stabilize its magnitude reading. A BP filter with a pass-
band from 5.01 kHz to 5.03 kHz is used to reduce the noise in the main channel and
133
reference channel AF signal, respectively. The instantaneous frequency of the AF
signal in the reference channel is very close to that of the main channel. RF isolators
with total reverse isolation of 180 dB are placed between the main and reference
RF mixers to reduce the crosstalk between the main and reference channel.
Fig. 6.7 shows the measured magnitude and phase of the AF signal down-
converted from a signal at 480 GHz, with a 10 dB attenuator inserted between the
test ports and the LIA reference is provided by the coherent reference channel. The
LIA time constant is set to 1 s. It is clear that the receiver fluctuations in magnitude
and phase have reduced significantly. The phase fluctuation around its mean value
reduces to ±0.4◦ . The standard uncertainty in attenuation measurement due to
LIA voltage reading fluctuation reduces to 0.004 dB using this dual-channel system.
134
1200.5
magnitude, microvolt
1200
1199.5
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
time, s
52.2
52
phase, degree
51.8
51.6
51.4
51.2
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
time, s
Figure 6.7: The measured magnitude and phase of the AF signal down-converted
from a signal at 480 GHz using the dual-channel system, with 10 dB attenuator
inserted between the test ports.
135
6.4.3 Measurement of Attenuation up to 100 dB using a
Dual-channel System
To improve the measurement dynamic range, a low-noise amplifier (LNA) with a
noise figure of 0.5 dB at 2.5 GHz is inserted before the main RF mixer. The LNA
is used to amplify the main channel IF signal before it is down-converted to AF.
Two waveguide matching pads are placed at test ports to improve the port match.
Attenuations of up to 50 dB can be measured using the direct measurement
method, with a matching pad of 10 dB at each side of the DUT. For a DUT
with attenuation higher than 50 dB, it is measured using the indirect measurement
method by comparing to a 0–50 dB GBA and each matching pad is reduced to 6
dB.
Analysis of receiver dynamic range
The LIA time constant is set to 10 s to improve the SNR in measurement. The
equivalent receiver bandwidth in the LIA is 0.011 Hz. When the attenuation from
Port 1 to Port 2 is A21 = 117 dB, the receiver SNR is measured to be 35 dB at 480
GHz if the phase sensitive measurements made in 2 minutes are averaged using the
complex data. Therefore the receiver DR at 480 GHz is estimated to be
DR = A21 + SN R ≈ 117 + 35 = 152 (dB). (6.16)
The signal level at port 1 is −18 dBm at 480 GHz and the noise floor at the receiver
input (port 2) is estimated to be
Nf = −18 dBm − 152 dB = −170 (dBm). (6.17)
136
Measurement of 0–100 dB variable attenuator
The measurement uncertainty components include the errors due to IVD, nonlin-
earity, impedance mismatch, receiver fluctuation, noise, GBA calibration uncer-
tainty and measurement repeatability. The standard uncertainty due to IVD ratio
error is 0.002 dB for a 100 dB attenuator. The nonlinearity of the dual-channel
receiver is checked by repeated measurement of a 10 dB incremental attenuation
at initial input levels (at port 2) deceasing from −36 dBm to −86 dBm in 10 dB
steps. The standard uncertainty due to nonlinearity is estimated to be 0.011 dB.
The matching pads at test ports help to reduce the mixer compression error for
DUT with low attenuation.
The receiver fluctuation for high attenuation measurement is mainly due to the
thermal noise and phase noise in the system. The standard uncertainty due to
receiver noise is about 0.0085 dB and 0.088 dB when the DUT attenuation is 80
dB and 100 dB, respectively. The standard mismatch uncertainty is about 0.037
dB and 0.052 dB for DUT attenuation below and above 50 dB, respectively.
Two cascade-connected WR–2.2 variable waveguide attenuator (referred to as
VA1 and VA2 ), each with 0–50 dB attenuation, are used to form a 0–100 dB
synthesized variable attenuator (SVA). The repeatability is 0.014 dB and 0.046 dB
for measurement of 50 dB and 100 dB attenuation, respectively. The expanded
uncertainties (coverage factor k=2) for attenuation measurement of the 0–100 dB
SVA are estimated to be 0.078–0.24 dB at 480 GHz. Table 6.8 gives the uncertainty
budget for measurement of the 0–100 dB waveguide SVA at 480 GHz.
The attenuation of the SVA is measured at 10–100 dB settings in 10 dB steps
at 480 GHz to verify the performance of the system. The results are given in Table
6.9. The VA2 is first measured at 10–50 dB with VA1 set to 0 dB. The incremental
137
Table 6.8: Uncertainty estimation for measurement of a 0–100 dB SVA at 480 GHz
Uncertainty Nominal Attenuation (dB)

Components 0 - 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
IVD error 0.0003 0.0008 0.0020 0.0003 0.0003 0.0003 0.0008 0.0020
Nonlinearity 0.011 0.011 0.011 0.011 0.011 0.011 0.011 0.011
Mismatch 0.037 0.037 0.037 0.052 0.052 0.052 0.052 0.052
Receiver noise 0.0041 0.0056 0.0060 0.0060 0.0060 0.0085 0.027 0.088
Gauge block
0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.041 0.041 0.041 0.041 0.041
attenuator
Meaurement
0.0056 0.0076 0.014 0.040 0.040 0.040 0.041 0.046
repeatability
Combined
0.039 0.039 0.041 0.078 0.079 0.079 0.083 0.12
Uncertainty
Expanded
Uncertainty 0.078 0.079 0.082 0.16 0.16 0.16 0.17 0.24
(k=2)
!"#$%#&'(#)*+,-.*/0
!"#$%#&'(#)*+,-.*/0
attenuation of the VA1 at 0–50 dB step is measured to be AGBA = 50.340 dB, which
!"#$%%
&'( )$*"# %$+ ,$-!* .
is used as the GBA reference
12 for measuring the SVA113127275
1132456 at its 60–1008232769
dB range using the
823215:
72 1132;< 113127275 8232292 1%2%%34
indirect measurement
:2 method.
1132;;1With VA1 set to 50 dB, the measured
113127275 1%2%%56
823227; attenuation
92 113114 113127275 232152 %2%%7$
52
of VA2 at its 0–50 dB step1132;9
is added to the 113127275
AGBA to obtain 82322<2 1%2%%8$
the attenuation of SVA
62 1132<< 113127275 8232192 1%2%%75
42
at its 0–100 dB step. 11319 113127275 232:<2 23271;
<2 1132< 113127275 8232772 8232174
;2 123;< 113127275 8231772 8232425
Table 6.9: Measurement results of a 0–100 dB SVA at 480 GHz
%-*#%$8 *= $,#=>#./ 62,=#?@*"A$,#BC##52#,=#)*%D
VA1 Nominal VA2 Nominal Nominal Total Mean Measured

Expanded
Attenuation Attenuation Incremental Total Incremental
Uncertainty (dB)
Step (dB) Step (dB) Attenuation (dB) Attenuation (dB)
0-0 0-10 10 9.970 0.078

0-0 0-20 20 19.802 0.078
0-0 0-30 30 29.263 0.078
0-0 0-40 40 37.859 0.079
0-0 0-50 50 48.449 0.082
0-50 0-10 60 60.312 0.16
0-50 0-20 70 70.114 0.16
0-50 0-30 80 79.554 0.16
0-50 0-40 90 88.052 0.17
0-50 0-50 100 98.752 0.24
138
Investigation of leakage error in measurement
When the SVA is set to 100 dB and a matching pad of 6 dB is connected at each
test port, the power level at port 2 is around −135 dBm. There might be error
in attenuation measurement due to leakage if the receiver picks up some radiated
sub-millimeter wave signal or cross-talk signal from the reference channel. We have
!"#$%#&'(#)*+,-.*/0
conducted an experiment using the SVA to check whether the measurement error
!"#$%%
&'( )$*"# %$+
,$-!* .
due to leakage
12 is significant.
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72 1132;< 113127275 8232292 1%2%%34
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With VA92 1 set113114
to 50 dB, the VA2 is measured
113127275 again at its 10–50
232152 %2%%7$dB range in 10
52 1132;9 113127275 82322<2 1%2%%8$
62 results
dB steps with 1132<<given in Table 6.10.
113127275 also shows1%2%%75
Table 6.108232192 the deviations from
42 11319 113127275 232:<2 23271;
<2 1132< 113127275 8232772 8232174
measurements
;2 of123;<
VA2 made at a power level which
113127275 is 42 dB 8232425
8231772 higher (used as the
%-*#%$8 *=reference
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values, given in row 1 to row 5 in Table 6.9). The deviations show that
measurements made at power level from −85 dBm to −135 dBm (Table 6.10) agree
with the reference values for VA2 (given in Table 6.9) within their measurement 232:2 23
231;< 13
uncertainties, indicating that leakage error in attenuation measurement is negligible 234:4 13
73191 73
at 480 GHz. 13551 73
823:17 :3
823119 :3
Table 6.10: Measurement of the VA2 at 480 GHz at receiver input levels that are 23996 93
13;9< 93
1379< 53
42 dB lower than those given in Table 6.9
VA2 Nominal Nominal Mean Measured Deviation from

Expanded
Attenuation Incremental Incremental Measurement in
Uncertainty (dB)
Step (dB) Attenuation (dB) Attenuation (dB) Table 6.9 (dB)
0-10 10 9.972 0.11 0.0020

0-20 20 19.774 0.11 -0.028
0-30 30 29.214 0.11 -0.050
0-40 40 37.712 0.12 -0.15
0-50 50 48.412 0.21 -0.036
!"#$%&'() 9:#;-&#<=>? @A#<BC?
:75 232:;1 19236 81139

::2 2325< 19932 8<32
:92 231164 15231 813;
:52 23171 15239 8136
:<2 23194 15731 231
922 2319<4 15737 237
952 231:4<
13915136 8239
9<2 23199; 15732
9;2 231:4 15135 8235
9;4 231:91 1513: 8234
6.5. Summary
6.5 Summary
IVD-based dual-channel attenuation measurement systems in 75–110 GHz, 140–220
GHz and 330–500 GHz have been developed for precision attenuation measurement.
The millimeter-wave and sub-millimeter wave attenuation measurement is trace-
able to a low frequency voltage ratio standard at 5.02 kHz. The measurement
uncertainties for a 100 dB attenuator are estimated to be 0.084 dB at 110 GHz,
0.11 dB at 220 GHz and 0.24 dB at 480 GHz, respectively. The noise floor of
the measurement receiver is around −168 dBm at 110 GHz and −169 dBm at 220
GHz, when a LNA is used to boost up the main channel IF signal. The DR of the
measurement system is estimated to be about 175 dB at 110 GHz and 163 dB at
220 GHz. The proposed dual-channel heterodyne receivers in WR–2.2 band has
achieved a room-temperature noise floor of −170 dBm and a DR of 152 dB at 480
GHz.
The DR of these new measurement systems is much higher than that of a VNA
[122, 123, 134]. The measurement systems have been verified using precision RVAs.
These systems have been used as Singapore national standards for millimeter-wave
and sub-millimeter wave attenuation measurement. Variable waveguide attenua-
tors calibrated by these systems can serve as reference and transfer standards for
linearity calibration of VNA, power meters, radiometers and spectrum analyzers.
With antenna connected at the test ports, these systems can also be used for high-
DR millimeter-wave spectroscopy, imaging, non-destructive testing and material
measurement. The dual-channel design using multipliers and subharmonic mixers
can be used for the frequency range at 500–750 GHz or 750–1100 GHz and the
receiver noise floor is expected to be much lower than that of a VNA since it is
mainly determined by the thermal noise.
140
Chapter 7
Millimeter-wave Phase-shift
Precision Measurement
7.1 Introduction
Accurate measurement of millimetre-wave transmission phase-shift is important in
many applications. A 70 GHz phase-shift measuring system has been developed
for plasma diagnosis [219]. This system used a single-channel homodyne receiver
to derive the millimeter-wave phase-shift through a phase-comparator at 2 MHz.
Millimeter-wave phase-shift measurement standard has been studied using a VNA
and an air line with 1.85 mm connector for frequencies up to 65 GHz [125]. An
air line can be used as a phase-shift reference standard and provide traceability
in phase-shift measurement for wireless communication applications at 60 GHz
[103, 104].
A millimeter-wave network analyzer [134] or a dual-channel VNA [122] can be
used to measure phase-shift at 50–1000 GHz. The expanded uncertainty of trans-
mission phase-shift measurement for a 20 dB attenuator is estimated to be 0.86◦ at
141
7.1. Introduction
110–170 GHz using a VNA [122]. The expanded uncertainty of transmission mea-
surement for a 30 dB attenuator is estimated to be 0.78 dB at 220–325 GHz [124].
Thus the expanded uncertainty of transmission phase-shift measurement for a 30
dB attenuator is estimated to be 5.39◦ at 220–325 GHz.
generates random deviations between the instantaneous frequency of the IF signal
and the LO in the vector receivers. Such random deviations behave like a phase
noise effect which increases the instability in phase measurement for a DUT with
high attenuation. The phase-shift measurement uncertainty using millimeter-wave
network analyzer [134] or a dual-channel VNA [122] is too high for a DUT with
attenuation beyond 30 dB.
New phase-shift measurement technique is needed to measure the phase-shift of
high attenuation DUT with good accuracy. A dedicated millimeter-wave phase-
shift reference standard and measurement system is required to provide traceable
phase-shift reference values with high accuracy. A variable phase changer or a
waveguide shim calibrated by a millimeter-wave phase-shift precision measurement
system can serve as a phase-shift reference standard to provide traceability for
VNA and phase measurement made by millimeter-wave imaging and spectroscopy
systems.
The increasing demand for fast wireless data transmission applications requires
communication systems at 300 GHz [106]. In this chapter, we will investigate the
millimeter-wave phase-shift measurement technique using a dual-channel system
at 220–325 GHz. In our proposed design, a LIA employs a coherent AF reference
signal to detect the main channel AF signal with low SNR. The deviations be-
tween the instantaneous frequency of the main channel and reference channel AF
signal are negligible since they are generated from the same microwave source and
142
7.1. Introduction
LO. This ensures that the synchronous detection by the LIA can make accurate
measurement of the millimeter-wave phase-shift.
The phase-shift measurement uncertainties are carefully analysed. The phase-
shift of a 0–60 dB WR-03 RVA can be measured at 325 GHz with uncertainties
of 0.58–1.32 degrees. The phase-shift measurement uncertainty of the proposed
system for a 50 dB attenuator at 325 GHz is ∼44 times smaller than that of a
VNA [122, 124].
The leakage error in millimeter-wave phase-shift measurement has not been stud-
ied in the literature. We have proposed a new method to evaluate the leakage errors
in millimeter-wave phase-shift measurement for devices with high attenuation. This
is critical for reliable estimation of the phase measurement accuracy in high DR
measurement. A waveguide shim has been used as a phase-shift reference standard
to verify the system performance. The measured phase-shift of the waveguide shim
agrees with its calculated phase-shift value within their estimated uncertainties.
The frequency band at 220–325 GHz (WR-03 band) has been selected to study
the phase-shift measurement accuracy using a dual-channel receiver design. Similar
design can be used for phase-shift precision measurement at other frequency bands
within 50–500 GHz. Chapter 6 has shown that the noise floor of dual-channel
systems using our proposed design is expected to be around −169 dBm at 50–
500 GHz. The phase-shift measurement using dual-channel receivers at 50–220
GHz is expected to have slightly better accuracy compared to WR-03 band, due
to higher SNR and lower mismatch uncertainty. A dual-channel system at 330–
500 GHz is expected to have slightly higher phase-shift measurement uncertainty
than that at WR-03 band, due to lower SNR and higher mismatch uncertainty.
The measurement uncertainty analysis of the proposed phase-shift system at WR-
03 band can help to predict the performance of phase-shift measurement systems
143
7.2. A 220–325 GHz Phase-shift Measurement System
using dual-channel design at other frequency bands within 50–500 GHz.
7.2 A 220–325 GHz Phase-shift Measurement Sys-
tem
A block diagram of the 220–325 GHz dual-channel phase-shift measurement system
is shown in Fig. 7.1. A microwave signal (12.22–18.06 GHz) drives a multiplier
chain (×18) to generate a millimeter-wave signal at 220–325 GHz. The signal
level at port 1 is about −10 dBm at 325 GHz. Two subharmonic mixers are
used to down-convert the signal to a main and a reference IF signal at 2.5 GHz,
respectively. The frequency of the local oscillator (LO1 ) is set to fLO which satisfies
fRF × 18 − fLO × 16 = 2.5 GHz, where fRF is the frequency of the RF source. The
main and reference IF signals go through BP filters and RF mixers to generate
AF signals at 5.02 kHz. The reference AF signal provides a frequency reference to
the LIA to stabilize the LIA reading. If the reference of the LIA is generated by
a function generator which is phase-locked to the microwave synthesizer through a
10 MHz reference signal, the maximum phase reading fluctuation at 325 GHz with
a 10 dB attenuator inserted at test ports could be 180◦ . The dual-channel system
can significantly reduce the phase reading fluctuation in the LIA.
An IVD is used to compensate the insertion loss or incremental attenuation of the
DUT. Several RF isolators with total isolation of about 180 dB are placed between
the main and reference RF mixers to reduce the RF leakage signal introduced by
the reference channel. A LSA is used to minimize the compression error in the main
subharmonic mixer and the RF mixer. The matching pads are used to reduce the
mismatch uncertainty in phase-shift measurement.
144
7.2. A 220–325 GHz Phase-shift Measurement System
RF Source DUT
Port 1 Port 2 Main Subharmonic
(12.22 - 18.06 GHz )
Mixer
X 18 Matching Matching
LSA IF (2.5 GHz)
Pad A Pad B
Test Ports LO
BP Filter
Ref Subharmonic LO X8
X8 Splitter
Mixer
IF (2.5 GHz)
LO1 RF
BP Filter AF (5.02 kHz)
Main RF Mixer
LO
Attenuator LP Filter
Attenuator
RF
LO Pre-Amp
Ref RF Mixer
Isolators IVD
10 MHz
Reference LO2
(2.49999498 GHz)
AF (5.02 kHz)
Reference (5.02 kHz) Lock-in
LP Filter Pre-Amp
Amp
Figure 7.1: Block diagram of a dual-channel millimeter-wave phase-shift measure-
ment system from 220 GHz to 325 GHz.
The millimeter-wave phase-shift is transferred to the AF signal and measured
by the LIA. The time constant of the LIA is set to 2 s. Before a DUT is inserted,
the phase detected by the LIA is θ1 . After the insertion of the DUT, the IVD ratio
is adjusted till the LIA detects a signal with magnitude similar to that before DUT
insertion (magnitude difference < 10 µV ), and the phase detected by the LIA is
θ2 . Thus the insertion phase-shift of the DUT is derived as
θI = θ2 − θ1 . (7.1)
Similarly, differential phase-shift of a variable attenuator or phase-shifter can be
obtained from
θD = θf′ − θi′ , (7.2)
where θi′ and θf′ are the measured phases when the DUT is at its initial and final
setting, respectively. The LSA is set to 20 dB for measurement of a DUT with
attenuation below 20 dB.
145
For a DUT with attenuation from 20 dB to 60 dB, the LSA is replaced by a
GBA with variable attenuation from 0 to 20 dB. The GBA is set to 20 dB before
DUT insertion, and set to 0 dB after DUT insertion. The phase-shift difference
of the DUT and the GBA is measured to be δθ . The phase-shift of DUT is then
obtained from
θDU T = δθ + θGBA , (7.3)
where θGBA is the calibrated incremental phase-shift of the GBA.
7.3.1 Phase Error due to IVD
The millimeter-wave signal is down-converted to a signal at 5.02 kHz, which goes
through an IVD before its phase is measured by the LIA. The maximum phase error
caused by the change of IVD ratio is estimated to be eI = 0.02◦ . The standard
uncertainty due to the phase error caused by IVD is estimated to be
eI
uI = √ , (7.4)
3
assuming a rectangular distribution.
7.3.2 Receiver Noise
The detected signal by the LIA has a maximum fluctuation of ef = 0.1◦ in its phase
reading when the DUT attenuation is less than 20 dB at 325 GHz. The fluctuation
increases when the noise effect is more significant at higher attenuation levels. The
time constant of the lock-in amplifier is set to 2 seconds to reduce the noise effect.
As DUT attenuation increases to 60 dB, the maximum fluctuation in phase reading
146
becomes ef = 0.5◦ at 325 GHz. The standard uncertainty due to the receiver noise
is estimated from
ef
uf = √ , (7.5)
3
assuming the error has a rectangular distribution.
7.3.3 Phase Drift
The detected phase of the main channel has a small drift error due to the phase
noises of the two microwave synthesizers and the multiplier chains. The LIA uses
a phase reference signal produced by the reference channel receiver, which helps to
stabilize the phase reading in the LIA. However, the LO signal for the reference
subharmonic mixer still has some random phase jitter which is not synchronized
with the LO for the main subharmonic mixer. Thus some phase drift in the LIA
is expected.
The maximum phase drift in one minute has been measured to be ed = 0.3◦
when the DUT attenuation is below 10 dB, and ed increases to 0.8◦ as the DUT
attenuation increases to 60 dB. The phase drift error is assumed to have a rectan-
gular distribution. The standard uncertainty due to phase drift error is estimated
to be
ed
ud = √ . (7.6)
3
7.3.4 Phase-shift Calibration Error of GBA
For DUT with attenuation in the range from 20 dB to 60 dB, its phase-shift is
derived indirectly by comparing the DUT to a 20 dB GBA. The phase-shift of
the GBA has been calibrated previously with a measurement uncertainty, which
should be included as one of the uncertainty components for the DUT phase-shift
147
measurement. The standard uncertainty due to GBA is
UGBA
uGBA = , (7.7)
2
where UGBA is the expanded phase-shift calibration uncertainty of the GBA.
Differential phase-shift measurement
The limit of the mismatch error in differential phase-shift measurements is obtained
by (5.11). The mismatch error in differential phase-shift measurements is assumed
to be uniformly distributed in [− lim ǫd , lim ǫd ]. Thus the standard uncertainty due
to mismatch is
lim ǫd
um = √ (7.8)
3
The standard uncertainty due to mismatch error in differential phase-shift mea-
surement is estimated to be 0.22◦ for a WR-03 RVA at 325 GHz. The maximum
mismatch error for measurements of the RVA attenuation range from 0 dB to 60
dB in 10 dB step has been used to estimate the standard uncertainty um .
Insertion phase-shift measurement
The error limit of the mismatch error in insertion phase-shift measurement is de-
rived using (5.18). The mismatch error in insertion phase-shift measurements is
assumed to be uniformly distributed in [− lim ǫI , lim ǫI ] and the standard uncer-
tainty due to mismatch can be derived as
lim ǫI
um = √ (7.9)
3
148
The standard uncertainty due to mismatch error in insertion phase-shift mea-
surements is estimated to be 0.14◦ for a WR-03 waveguide shim at 325 GHz.
7.3.6 Leakage Error
A millimeter-wave leakage signal refers to the signal which arrives at the receiver via
a path different from the main path which goes through the DUT. For a DUT with
high attenuation, the leakage signal will cause a significant phase-shift measurement
error when the main path signal level is quite low. When the DUT is set to a high
attenuation, the signal detected by the LIA can be expressed as
x~2 = x~M + x~L (7.10)
where x~M is the main path signal and x~L is the leakage signal. The angle between
the two vectors x~2 and x~M is referred to as θe . When the DUT is set to its datum
position (0 dB attenuation), the signal detected by the LIA is x~1 . If the magnitude
of x~1 is assumed to be much higher than that of the leakage signal, then the error
in phase-shift measurement caused by leakage is θe .
The phase difference between x~M and x~L is unknown. The maximum error in
phase-shift measurement occurs when x~2 is perpendicular to x~L , as shown in Fig.
7.2. Thus the maximum error is derived as
|x~L |
θL = sin−1 (7.11)
|x~M |
The DUT attenuation is
x1
ADU T = 20 log10 (dB) (7.12)
xM
and the leakage path attenuation is
x1
AL = 20 log10 (dB) (7.13)
xL
149
x2 xL
șL
– șL xM
Figure 7.2: Error in phase-shift measurement due to millimeter-wave leakage.
thus we have
xM
AL − ADU T = 20 log10 (dB) (7.14)
xL
and
ADU T −AL
θL = sin−1 10 20 (7.15)
Fig. 7.3 shows the computed maximum error θL for various values of AL − ADU T
ranging from 20 dB to 80 dB. To keep the θL to be smaller than 0.1◦ , the leakage
path signal xL has to be at least 55 dB below the main path signal xM , i.e.,
AL − Adut ≥ 55 dB.
The maximum error in phase-shift measurement due to leakage for DUT with
attenuation from 10 dB to 80 dB can be computed using (7.15), assuming AL of
100 dB, 110 dB, 120 dB, 130 dB and 140 dB. Fig. 7.4 shows that the maximum
error θL is 1.81◦ and 5.74◦ for DUT attenuation at 70 dB and 80 dB, respectively,
when the leakage attenuation is 100 dB.
There is an internal RF leakage path which goes through the reference RF
150
Maximum phase−shift measurement error (deg) 5
0
20 30 40 50 60 70 80
A −A (dB)
L DUT
Figure 7.3: Maximum error in phase-shift measurement due to millimeter-wave
leakage for various attenuation differences between DUT path and leakage path.
mixer, RF isolators, the directional coupler and the main RF mixer RF port. Six
RF isolators are inserted in the path between LO port of two RF mixers to reduce
such leakage. Directional couplers with high directivity are used to provide 50 dB
isolation between the two channels. The isolation between the main RF mixer RF
port and the LO port is about 30 dB. The total isolation on the internal leakage
path is estimated to be 350 dB, which is sufficient to ensure the leakage effect is
negligible for DUT with attenuation below 80 dB.
There is also an external leakage effect caused by radiated millimeter-wave sig-
nals from the waveguide flange connectors. These radiated millimeter-wave signals
might enter the measurement receiver and introduce an error in phase-shift mea-
surement. It is difficult to measure such leakage signal directly. The waveguide
components have been connected carefully through a flange mating process and
151
6
A = 140 dB
Maximum phase−shift measurement error (deg)

L
5 A = 130 dB
L
A = 120 dB
L
4 A = 110 dB
L
A = 100 dB
L
3
−1
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Attenuation of DUT (dB)
Figure 7.4: Maximum error in phase-shift measurement due to millimeter-wave
leakage for DUT with attenuation from 10 dB to 80 dB.
each flange connection is fixed by four screws to reduce radiation leakage to the
minimum level. It is assumed that the leakage path attenuation through waveg-
uide flange interface coupling and free space propagation is large enough so that
the error in phase-shift measurement due to leakage is negligible for DUT attenu-
ation below 60 dB. This assumption will be verified in section 7.5 by measurement
experiments.
7.3.7 Combined and Expanded Uncertainty
The uncertainties due to IVD phase error, receiver noise, phase drift, mismatch er-
ror, repeatability and GBA uncertainty are combined using root-sum-of-the-squares
152
method to yield the standard system uncertainty us given by

sX
us = ( u2i ) (7.16)
i
The expanded system uncertainty is
Us = kus (7.17)
where k is the coverage factor. The expanded uncertainties (coverage factor k=2)
of differential phase-shift measurement for a 0–60 dB RVA are estimated to be
0.58◦ –1.32◦ at 325 GHz. Table 7.1 gives the phase-shift measurement uncertainty
budget for a 0−60 dB rotary vane attenuator at 325 GHz.
Table 7.1: Uncertainty budget for differential phase-shift measurement of a 0–60
dB RVA at 325 GHz.

Norminal Incremental Attenuation (dB)
Uncertainty Component
0 - 20 30 40 50 60
Phase error due to IVD 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.012 0.012
Mismatch error 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22
Receiver noise 0.058 0.12 0.17 0.23 0.29
Phase drift 0.17 0.26 0.35 0.40 0.46
GBA phase-shift
uncertainty 0.00 0.29 0.29 0.29 0.29
Repeatability 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.08
Combined uncertainty 0.29 0.46 0.53 0.59 0.66
Expanded uncertainty
0.58 0.92 1.06 1.19 1.32
(k=2)
153
7.4. Phase-shift Measurement of a 0–60 dB RVA
7.4 Phase-shift Measurement of a 0–60 dB RVA
A WR-03 RVA used in our laboratory at the National Metrology Centre is shown in
Fig. 7.5. This precision device can provide variable phase-shift values at specified
dial setting with good repeatability. The differential phase-shift of a WR-03 RVA
has been measured from 0 dB to 60 dB ranges in 10 dB step at 325 GHz.
Figure 7.5: A WR-03 0–60 dB RVA used in our laboratory at the National Metrol-
ogy Centre.
A 10 dB matching pad is connected at each side of the RVA. The minimum
signal level at Port 2 during measurement is around −93 dBm when the RVA is set
to 60 dB and the GBA set to 0 dB. The measurement results and their expanded
uncertainties (coverage factor k=2) are listed in Table 7.2. The differential phase-
shift measurement uncertainty is estimated to be 0.58◦ –1.32◦ for a 0–60 dB RVA
at 325 GHz.
Table 7.2: Differential phase-shift results of a 0–60 dB WR-03 RVA at 325 GHz
Total Nominal Mean measured Expanded Measurement

Attenuation differential phase-shift Uncertainty
0 - 10 -0.22 0.58
0 - 20 -0.62 0.58
0 - 30 -1.27 0.92
0 - 40 -2.35 1.06
0 - 50 -4.17 1.19
0 - 60 -7.18 1.32
154
7.5. Investigation of Leakage Error
7.5 Investigation of Leakage Error
In order to study the effect of millimeter-wave leakage, the differential phase-shift
of the same RVA is measured again at 325 GHz with a 20 dB attenuator inserted
at Port 1. Then the minimum signal level at port 2 during measurement is around
−113 dBm when the RVA is set to 60 dB and the GBA set to 0 dB. A low-noise
RF amplifier with a noise figure of 6.2 dB is inserted before the main RF mixer
to improve the SNR in measurement. The measured differential phase-shifts for
attenuation steps 0–30 dB, 0–40 dB, 0–50 dB and 0–60 dB are listed in Table 7.3.
The deviations from the measurements in Table 7.2 for the same attenuation
range are also listed in Table 7.3. Comparing to results in Table 7.2, the deviation
in differential phase-shift for attenuation steps 0–30 dB and 0–40 dB is 0.03◦ and
0.08◦ respectively, which is much smaller than the measurement uncertainty given in
Table 7.2. Thus we can conclude that the leakage error in phase-shift measurement
is negligible when the signal level at port 2 is above −93 dBm. This means that
the leakage error in phase-shift measurement of a 0–60 dB RVA is negligible. Thus
the uncertainty estimation in Table 7.1 is valid.
The deviation in differential phase-shift for attenuation steps 0–60 dB is −4.94◦ ,
which is larger than the uncertainties due to receiver noise and phase drift error.
We conclude that the large measurement deviation is due to the millimeter-wave
leakage at 325 GHz, which becomes significant as the signal level at Port 2 decreases
to −113 dBm.
155
7.6. Millimeter-wave Phase-Shift Reference Standard
Table 7.3: Differential phase-shift measurement of the same WR-03 RVA at 325
GHz when the signal levels at port 2 are 20 dB lower than those in Table 7.2
Total Nominal Mean measured Deviation from the

Attenuation differential phase-shift measurement in Table 7.2
0 - 30 -1.24 0.03
0 - 40 -2.26 0.08
0 - 50 -5.04 -0.87
0 - 60 -12.12 -4.94
7.6 Millimeter-wave Phase-Shift Reference Stan-
dard
A waveguide shim (or waveguide section) can be used as a phase-shift reference
standard (line standard). Fig. 7.6 shows a WR-03 waveguide shim with a length
of 0.997 mm, which is used in our laboratory at the National Metrology Centre.
Figure 7.6: A WR-03 waveguide shim used in our laboratory at the National
Metrology Centre.
The guide wavelength λg is given by
λ
λg = q , (7.18)
λ 2
1 − ( 2a )
where λ is the free space wavelength given by
c
λ= √ , (7.19)
f ǫr
156
7.7. System Verification using a Waveguide Shim
c = 299792458 m/s, the relative permittivity of air ǫr = 1.000649, f is the frequency
and a is the waveguide broad wall dimension. For WR-03 waveguide, a = 0.8636
mm.
The insertion phase-shift (in degrees) of a waveguide shim can be calculated
from
l
θ = 360 × (n − ), (7.20)
λg
where l is the longitudinal length of the waveguide shim and n is an integer.
The phase-shift of the waveguide shim is computed from the longitudinal length,
which can provide the traceability for millimeter-wave in-waveguide phase-shift
measurement.
7.7 System Verification using a Waveguide Shim
A WR–03 waveguide shim has been measured as a line standard to verify the
system. The longitudinal length of the waveguide shim has been measured to be
0.997 mm with an expanded uncertainty of 0.007 mm. Thus its insertion phase-shift
is calculated using (7.20) to be 30.89◦ with an expanded uncertainty of 2.31◦ at 325
GHz, and 112.26◦ with an expanded uncertainty of 1.74◦ at 270 GHz, respectively.
The uncertainty in the calculated phase-shift is due to the length measurement
uncertainty.
The measured insertion phase-shift of the waveguide shim at 325 GHz and 270
GHz is 28.65◦ and 110.98◦ , with an expanded uncertainty of 0.61◦ and 0.57◦ , respec-
tively. Six measurements have been made at each frequency. The 95% confidence
intervals of the measured insertion phase-shift and the calculated value overlap
with each other at 325 GHz and 270 GHz respectively. The measured and calcu-
157
7.8. Summary
lated phase-shift of the shim, along with their expanded uncertainties, are listed in
Table 7.4. The comparison in Table 7.4 shows that the measurements agree with
the calculated values within their expanded uncertainties.
Table 7.4: Comparison of measured and calculated insertion phase-shift of a waveg-
uide shim
Mean Expanded
Expanded Calculated Difference between
Measured Uncertainty for
Frequency Uncertainty for Insertion Measured and
Insertion Calculated
Measured Value Phase-shift Calculated Value
Phase-shift Value
(GHz) (Degree) (Degree) (Degree) (Degree) (Degree)
270 110.98 0.57 112.26 1.74 -1.28
325 28.65 0.61 30.89 2.31 -2.24
7.8 Summary
A novel 220–325 GHz millimeter-wave phase-shift measurement system has been
developed. The differential phase-shift measurement uncertainty is estimated to be
0.58◦ –1.32◦ for a RVA with attenuation up to 60 dB at 325 GHz. This system can
provide accurate phase-shift measurement for various devices at WR-03 band. The
phase noise effect has been suppressed significantly by the proposed dual-channel
design. The phase-shift measurement uncertainty for a 50 dB attenuator using our
proposed system is about 44 times smaller than that of a VNA.
A waveguide shim or a RVA calibrated by the proposed measurement system can
be used as a phase-shift transfer standard to provide phase-shift reference values for
calibration of other instruments, such as a VNA. The dual-channel heterodyne sys-
tem design can also be used in other applications for accurate phase measurement
at millimeter-wave frequencies.
158
Chapter 8
Conclusion and Recommendations
8.1 Conclusion
Various microwave attenuation and phase-shift measurement systems have been
developed by many national standard laboratories since 1950s. The measurement
DR, accuracy and frequency range of these continuous-wave (CW) systems need to
be increased to meet the ever-increasing demands from the industry and scientific
research community. Microwave and millimeter-wave are increasingly being used
in broadband communications, radar, remote sensing, security imaging and non-
destructive testing. Millimeter-wave transmission loss through waveguide or free
space is very high and the output power of millimeter-wave CW source is quite
low. It is very important to design a high-sensitivity receiver to detect microwave
and millimeter-wave signals with high DR. There is a growing demand for accurate
attenuation and phase-shift measurement techniques and reference standards at
microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies, which are critical for component and
system development.
We have developed a novel microwave attenuation measurement system compris-
159
8.1. Conclusion
ing of a single-channel and a dual-channel heterodyne receiver at 0.05–26.5 GHz.
The DR of our proposed design is much higher than those reported in the litera-
ture [116, 126–132]. The expanded measurement uncertainty is 0.0072–0.62 dB for
a 0–160 dB coaxial variable attenuator at 26 GHz. A voltage ratio of 1.0 × 10−8
at 26 GHz can be measured with an expanded uncertainty of 7.4 × 10−10 . This
measurement standard is traceable to an inductive voltage divider (IVD) at 5.02
kHz. We have proposed new ways to analyse the leakage error and noise floor
in attenuation measurement, which have not been well studied in the literature.
For frequencies beyond 2 GHz, the system employs a coherent frequency reference
channel to minimize the phase noise effect on lock-in amplifier sensitivity. The
proposed receiver achieves a noise floor around −172 dBm and a record high DR
of 186.7 dB at 26 GHz. Our receiver noise floor is 47 dB lower than that of a VNA
at 26 GHz. The proposed system can measure a step attenuator with attenuation
up to 170 dB at 26 GHz with good accuracy, which is not possible using other
measurement systems.
GHz is ∼106 times smaller than that of a vector network analyzer (VNA) [133].
We have analysed the mismatch uncertainty in insertion phase-shift measurement,
which has not been studied in the literature. A coaxial beadless air line has been
used as a phase-shift standard to verify the proposed phase-shift measurement
160
8.1. Conclusion
system. The calculated phase-shifts with correction of the line insertion loss agree
with the measured values within the expanded uncertainties.
tems at 75–110 GHz, 140–220 GHz and 330–500 GHz. A commercial VNA has a
typical DR of 105 dB at 200 GHz and 104 dB at 500 GHz [134]. The DR of our
proposed system for a 50 dB attenuator at 325 GHz is ∼44 times smaller than
that of a VNA [122, 124]. A waveguide line standard has been measured as a
calculated phase-shifts agree with the measured values of the line standard within
161
8.1. Conclusion
their expanded uncertainties.
frequency.
sis to characterise its performance [129, 135–138]. We have evaluated the measure-
ment errors and uncertainties of the six new measurement standards proposed in
this thesis. It has been very difficult to estimate the leakage error in high attenua-
tion measurement since the leakage signal can not be separated from the noise [117].
The leakage error in phase-shift measurement has not been well studied in the liter-
ature. We have proposed new methods to evaluate the leakage errors in attenuation
and phase-shift measurement for devices with high attenuation. This is critical for
reliable estimation of the measurement accuracy in high DR measurement.
162
8.2. Recommendations for Future Work
8.2 Recommendations for Future Work
In-waveguide attenuation and phase-shift measurements at 0.5–1.1 THz
The dual-channel in-waveguide measurement technique presented in this thesis can
be used to develop novel attenuation and phase-shift measurement systems at 0.5–
0.75 THz and 0.75–1.1 THz using multipliers, couplers and subharmonic mixers.
It is expected that the THz-wave phase noise effect on attenuation measurement
accuracy at these waveguide bands will be significantly reduced by our proposed
technique. The dynamic range of such measurement systems is expected to be
much better than that of a VNA [134].
The mismatch error in attenuation or phase measurement at 0.5–1.1 THz will
be higher that at WR–2.2 band due to misalignment of waveguide aperture and
dimension error in waveguide fabrication. It will be necessary to build RVAs at
0.5–0.75 THz and 0.75–1.1 THz as the attenuation/phase-shift reference standards.
High precision in fabrication will be required due to the reduced size of the waveg-
uide aperture. It is interesting to investigate the leakage error in such measurement
at 0.5–1.1 THz and verify the measurement DR.
Quasi-optical attenuation and phase-shift measurements at 0.3–2 THz
Another interesting future work is to develop a quasi-optical (QO) attenuation and
phase-shift measurement system at 0.3–2 THz using our proposed dual-channel
heterodyne receivers. QO propagation is a lower loss method of THz-wave trans-
163
8.2. Recommendations for Future Work
mission to achieve high-performance THz systems [247]. Multipliers, subharmonic
mixers and horn antenna operating at frequencies up to 2 THz are already avail-
able [93, 248, 249].
Such a QO system can calibrate a set of silicon plates which can be used as
QO attenuation reference standards at THz band. Each silicon plate can provide
3.1 dB transmission attenuation at 0.3–3 THz, which has been measured using a
time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) system at NPL [250]. The QO attenuation ref-
erence standards can be employed to calibrate the linearity of amplitude/power
measurements of THz spectroscopy systems, power meters, radiometers and detec-
tors [137, 251].
It would be interesting to investigate the possibility of using a set of silicon
plates as THz phase-shift reference and transfer standards, which can be measured
accurately by the proposed QO THz-wave phase-shift measurement system.
These research works will help to develop new THz-wave metrology standards
which will fill up the ‘gap’ between the current millimeter-wave and optical stan-
dards in the electromagnetic spectrum.
164
Author’s Publications
1. T. Y. Wu, Accurate measurement of millimetre-wave phase-shift from 220 to

325 GHz using a dual-channel system, Electron. Lett., vol. 48, pp. 31-33,
2012 (Highlighted in Electronics Letters, 5 Jan 2012, page 2 ).
2. T. Y. Wu, Accurate measurement of millimetre-wave attenuation from 75 GHz

to 110 GHz using a dual-channel heterodyne receiver, Measurement, vol. 45,
pp. 1105-1110, 2012.
3. T. Y. Wu, S. W. Chua, Y. L. Lu, Noise floor and dynamic range analysis

of a microwave attenuation measurement receiver from 50 MHz to 26.5 GHz,
Measurement, vol. 44, pp. 1516-1525, 2011.
4. T. Y. Wu, Accurate measurement of microwave phase-shift from 2 to 18 GHz

using heterodyne receiver, Electron. Lett., vol. 47, pp. 802-804, 2011.
5. T. Y. Wu, High dynamic range 140-220 GHz radiometer using dual-channel

superheterodyne receivers, Electron. Lett., vol. 47, pp. 1083-1084, 2011.
6. T. Y. Wu, S. W. Chua, Investigation of RF leakage in single channel and

dual channel microwave attenuation measurement systems, J. Astronautic
Metrology and Measurement, vol. 28, pp. 1-5, 2008.
7. G. Qiulai, L. Weijun, J.-G. Lee, A. Widarta, M. Chow, T. Wu, S. Grady,

M. Prozesky, E. Dressler, K. Patel, P. Negi, C. Wichianmongkonkun, and M.
Chanvichitkul, Final report on APMP attenuation key comparison APMP.
EM.RFK19. CL: Attenuation at 60 MHz and 5 GHz using a Type N step
attenuator, Metrologia, vol. 47, pp. 01015, 2010 (Tech. Suppl.).
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attenuation precision measurement using a heterodyne receiver, in: Proc. of
the 75th ARFTG Microwave Measurement Symposium, Anaheim, USA, pp.1-4,
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165
dard in the frequency range from 10 MHz to 26.5 GHz, in: IEEE Instrumen-
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phase-shift using a dual-channel heterodyne system, in: Asia Pacific Microwave
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microwave attenuation measurement system, in: Proc. of the 71st ARFTG
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M. Prozesky, E. Dressler, K. Patel, P. Negi, C. Wichianmongkonkun, and M.
Chanvichitkul, Final report on APMP attenuation key comparison APMP.
EM.RFK19. CL: Attenuation at 60 MHz and 5 GHz using a Type N step atten-
uator, Technical Report, Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM),
2010, [Online]. available at http://kcdb.bipm.org/appendixb /appbresults/ccem.
rf-k19.cl/apmp.em.rf-k19.cl final report.pdf
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Precision Measurement of Attenuation and Phase-Shift at Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Frequencies

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PRECISION MEASUREMENT OF ATTENUATION

AND PHASE-SHIFT AT MICROWAVE AND

School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering

A thesis submitted to the Nanyang Technological University

in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of

At this point, I would like to thank numerous professors during my graduate

studies at Nanyang Technological University. Among them, I am particularly grate-

I wish to thank the management of the National Metrology Center (NMC),

I also wish to express my gratitude to numerous professors at Shandong Uni-

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) for their excellent teaching

and advice. I am indebted to Professors David Munson, Richard Blahut, Thomas

encouragement throughout the years.

List of Figures xii

List of Acronyms xviii

1.1 Motivation and Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1.1 Precision Measurement and Metrology . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1.2 Measurement Standards in the Electromagnetic Spectrum . 4

1.3 Major Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

2.1 Microwave Attenuation Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

2.1.1 Definition of Attenuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

2.1.2 Attenuation Reference Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

2.1.3 Microwave Attenuation Measurement Systems . . . . . . . . 23

2.2 Microwave Phase-shift Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

2.2.1 Definition of Phase-shift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

2.2.2 Phase-shift Reference Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

2.2.3 Microwave Phase-shift Measurement Systems . . . . . . . . 30

2.3 Millimeter-wave Technology and Metrology . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

2.3.1 Millimeter-wave Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

2.3.2 Millimeter-wave Attenuation Measurement . . . . . . . . . . 34

2.3.3 Millimeter-wave Phase-shift Measurement . . . . . . . . . . 37

3 Precision Measurement of Microwave Attenuation 39

3.2 Single-channel AF Substitution Attenuation Measurement . . . . . 42

3.3 Dual-channel AF Substitution Attenuation Measurement . . . . . . 45

3.4 Measurement Uncertainty Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

3.4.1 IVD Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

3.4.2 Mismatch Uncertainty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

3.4.3 Receiver Nonlinearity Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

3.4.4 Receiver Fluctuation and Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

3.4.5 RF Leakage Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

3.4.6 GBA Uncertainty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

3.4.7 Measurement repeatability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

3.4.8 Combined and Expanded Measurement Uncertainty . . . . 55

3.5 Comparison of Single-channel and Dual-channel System . . . . . . . 56

3.5.1 Measurement of Low Attenuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

3.5.2 Measurement of High Attenuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

3.6 A Broadband Attenuation Measurement System at 0.05–26.5 GHz . 59

3.7 Measurement of a 0–110 dB Step Attenuator . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

4 Analysis of Noise in the Microwave Attenuation Measurement Re-

4.2 Measurement Receiver Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

4.2.1 Thermal Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

4.2.2 Phase Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

4.3 Phase Noise Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

4.3.1 Phase Sensitive Detection using a LIA . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

4.3.2 Phase Noise Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

4.3.3 Phase Noise Effect on Attenuation Measurement . . . . . . . 69

4.3.4 Phase Fluctuation Measured by the LIA . . . . . . . . . . . 72

4.3.5 Attenuation Measurement Error due to Phase Noise . . . . . 75

4.4 Noise Floor in a Dual-channel System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

4.4.1 Noise Measurement using the LIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

4.4.2 Receiver Noise Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

4.4.3 Receiver Dynamic Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

4.5 Attenuation Measurement Uncertainty due to Noise . . . . . . . . . 82

4.6 Measurement of Attenuation up to 170 dB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83