Traceable calibration of Vector Signal Analyzers

David A Humphreys, Matthew R Harper, and Martin Salter

National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex, TWII OLW,UK

Abstract - We have developed a calibration technique for instrument bandwidth (an 80 MHz bandwidth instrument
Vector Signal Analyzers (VSA) that provides traceability to samples at 100 MSamples/sec). The implication of this is that
primary standards. This technique has been implemented using
the full bandwidth could be described by a small number of
standard commercial equipment. A multisine signal generator
points with the remainder of the trace remaining close to zero.
provides detailed magnitude and phase stimulus over the
instrument bandwidth and a Digital Sampling Oscilloscope A multi-sine approach distributes the signal over the full
(OSO) measures the same multisine waveform. Traceability is epoch and reduces the dynamic range requirements.
provided via the OSO, calibrated against the primary standard Multisine waveforms comprise a series of sinewaves with
(Electro-Optic Sampler). The VSA can be characterized over its
fixed amplitude, phase and frequency relationships. These can
full-bandwidth (magnitude and phase) at any operating
be synthesized by filtering an impulse to control the amplitude
frequency. The reproducibility of three different multi-sine
measurements, averaged over an 80 MHz bandwidth was 3.4% and phase relationships[l] but this approach lacks flexibility.
(power) and 1.3 degrees (phase). More recently multi-sine waveforms are often generated using
Index Terms -digital sampling oscilloscopes, multisines, phase an arbitrary waveform generator (ARB) to modulate the
measurement, time-base correction, vector signal analyzer carrier frequency[2]. There will be impairments in the ARB
and the modulator and so we cannot assume that the waveform
I. INTRODUCTION is faithful to its mathematical description.
Traceability for vector electrical measurements is provided
Vector signal analyzers (VSA) are widely used to measure by an Electro-Optic Sampling system (EOS)[3]. The system at
wireless communication waveforms and parameters. These NPL uses a characterized electrical impulse provided by a
instruments are often used with specific software personalities photoconductive switch based on low-temperature-grown
to simplify the measurement of modulation formats such as gallium arsenide to calibrate the digital sampling oscilloscope
GSM and W-CDMA. (DSO). The full-width half-maximum of the impulse is
VSAs operate to frequencies of> 20 GHz and have receiver determined by the EOS system to be < 3 ps at the input
bandwidths from 10 MHz to > 100 MHz. The scalar response reference plane of the sampling oscilloscope. The ultrafast
of the instrument can be traceably calibrated using RF power laser source for the EOS and photoconductive switch has a
standards but this gives no information about the phase repetition rate of 80 MHz and so would be impractical to use
performance. Unlike instruments such as a Vector Network directly as a comb source for the VSA.
Analyzer, where the RF source is internal to the instrument
and the measurements are of relative phase at different
Analysis Vector
frequencies, a VSA requires a stimulus waveform with

I
Algorithms Spectrum Analyzer
multiple frequency components that have known phase
relationships to determine the full vector response.
The instrument manufacturers have detailed knowledge of
T Impedance
RF Multisine
the uncertainty contributions from all elements of their Match
Waveform
(ANA)
instruments but this information is generally not available. We
i
I
describe an externally verifiable process, using commercially
available equipment to provide a manufacturer-independent Timebase Sampling
traceable calibration. correction
r--- Oscilloscope

i
II. MEASUREMENT STRATEGY Primary Standard
EOS 80 MHz
Impulse response measurements, realized through impulse
and step generators, provide a verifiable test of equipment
against its design specification. Errors in the amplitude Fig. I. The calibration strategy is to measure the multi-sine
relationships over the full trace, and sample timing in the waveform with both the calibrated sampling oscilloscope and the
vicinity of the impulse, will have a greater effect on the Vector Spectrum Analyzer.
overall measurement uncertainties. Typically VSA
instruments provide sampled results at 1.25 to 1.5 times the

978-1·4244-6366-4/10/$26.00 ©2010 Crown

The strategy we have adopted, shown in Fig. I, is to measure a
stable multisine waveform with both the VSA and the OSO.
This waveform is common to both measurements and can be
removed by deconvolution. Corrections for RF splitter loss,
microwave impedance match and the OSO response must be
applied to the results to make them fully traceable.
III. RF SOURCE
The RF source must provide a signal in which there is a
known phase relationship between the frequency components.
RF comb generators have been used to provide phase
calibration for nonlinear component measurements but the
high repetition rate gives a coarse frequency comb-spacing
and few points will fall within the bandwidth of the VSA.
Pulse-modulated RF signals provide a series of phase-related
comb lines with a frequency spacing that is inversely
proportional to the repetition rate. However, the energy in
pulse-modulated signals is bunched into a short burst, giving
poor representation in time and requiring a wide dynamic
range for the instrumentation. In order to give sufficient
frequency and time resolution, many measurements with
overlapping bands are required[4]. The strategy that we have
developed is to use a high-density (e.g. 200 kHz) multi-sine
waveform as this provides a good representation of both the
magnitude and phase responses across the instrument
bandwidth.
••• Cosine(2)
XXX Cosine( 1)
600
••• Reverse Polynomial
400
rJl
<D
<D
....
OJ
<D 200
"0
C and jitter correction but assume that only one frequency
<D
rJl 0
ro
�
0..
-200
-400
-40 -20 o 20
Deviation from centre frequency in MHz
Fig. 2. Multisine waveforms measured with the DSO
To maintain a flat amplitude spectrum, there is a trade-off
between the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) in the time­
domain and the phase response in the frequency domain.
Signals such as phase or frequency modulation are amplitude­
flat in the time-domain and have a low PAPR in the frequency
domain. We require a near-flat amplitude response in the
frequency domain. A near-quadratic phase relationship,
determined by Newman[5] and Schroeder[6] gives the
minimum PAPR In this work we also used polynomial and
cosine phase relationships to vary the PAPR. Fig. 2. shows the
phase responses of the measured waveforms used in this work.
The multisine waveforms used in this measurement were
designed to have a flat amplitude response. The phase
response was chosen to give a low PAPR. The rate of change
of phase with frequency for the near quadratic minimum
PAPR solution is greatest at the edges of the spectrum where
the number of points per cycle is low. The different phase
relationships stress different frequency regions.
IV. RECEIVER MEASUREMENTS
Traceability via the OSO is required because the multi-sine
signal generator will add impairments to the modulated signal.
The maximum number of points that can be acquired by the
OSO depends on the manufacturer but is typically about 4000.
The measurements are heavily oversampled - typically twenty
to fifty traces are acquired for the measurement.
The measurement epoch T is normally related to the epoch,
T, by
( 1)
where f is the comb spacing so that the coupling between
frequency elements in the least-squares Fourier transform is
minimized
For a trace length of 4050 points and a comb spacing of 200
kHz, any RF carrier of> 100 MHz will be aliased. A number
of correction algorithms are available for OSO timebase
nonlinearity[7-8]. Parametric methods using in-phase and
quadrature reference signals OQ) provide a simple timebase
component is present[9]. In order to demodulate the RF signal
and to correct the timebase over the full epoch we use a dual
IQ technique comprising simultaneous measurement of low­
frequency (epoch) and high-frequency (carrier) IQ signals[IO].
The harmonic content of these signals was minimized by
filtering.
40
V. ANALYSIS
The results from the timebase correction algorithm are in
the form {v, t} pairs and so not amenable to discrete or fast
Fourier-transform analysis (OFT, FFT). We have used a least­
squares technique (LSQ) to determine the sine and cosine
components of the measured signals at each frequency.
Computer memory limits the size of arrays. If the problem
is approached directly and ignoring additional memory
requirements to solve the equation system, the number of
elements required for the equation system is
 Three different multi-sine profiles have been analyzed
separately and the normalized results show reproducibility,
M = (2· n+ 1)2 + (4· n+ 2) . m+ 2 . m (2) expanded to a 95% confidence interval (k 4.3), averaged =

over 80 MHz bandwidth, of 3.4% (0. 15 dB) for power and 1.3
where M is number of elements, n is the number of
degrees for phase.
frequencies and m is the number of data values. Subdividing m
Corrections for impedance mismatch, losses in the RF
into many smaller vectors and solving the equation set formed
splitter and the vector response of the DSO, derived from EOS
by the sum of the individual design matrices and solution
measurements, would need to be applied to the result to make
vectors will reduce data storage provided that
them fully traceable. These corrections would be
m>2'n+l (3) straightforward to apply.
0.6
An alternative solution is to solve for the frequency ...
Cosine(2)
components individually[ll], which will be slower but (J)
xxx Cosine(1)
<ii
without the memory restrictions. .n 0.4
The VSA response comprises time-varying real and '0
(!)
'D
imaginary components, sampled at a constant rate. This c 0.2
waveform can be analyzed either using a FFT or using the (!)
(J)
LSQ algorithms. Deconvolution is performed in the frequency c
0
domain. 0.. 0
(J)
(!)
�
<><><> Vector Spectrum Analyzer
(J) -0.2
<ii +++ Digital Sampling Oscilloscope �
.n
'0 •
� 0 -0.4
c
(!) -40 -20 o 20 40
(J)
c
8. -1 Deviation from centre frequency in MHz
(J)
(!)
�

Fig. 4. Magnitude response of the VSA after deconvolution.

'--____________----'<...1._
.. ---'
-2
-60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 4

Deviation from carrier frequency in MHz

Fig 3. Phase responses of the multisine waveform measured with the � 2

(!)
DSO. The results are dominated by the errors in the multisine ....

OJ
waveform. (!)
'D
C
o
(!)
VI. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS (J)
m
..c
A series of measurements has been made at 2.4 GHz 0...
covering 100 MHz at a grid spacing of 200 kHz and using -2 •••
Cosine(2)
different multi-sine phase profiles. The VSA sample rate was XXX Cosine(1)
100 MHz with a 100 [ts epoch. The DSO epoch was 20 [ts and •
•••
the measurement set comprises 202.5 k samples and used IQ Reverse Polynomial

frequencies of 150 MHz and 2.4 GHz. Although both signals -4

are aliased, the jitter is sufficiently low that no timing -40 -20 0 20 40
ambiguities are introduced. Separate measurements were
taken to determine the harmonic content.
Deviation from centre frequency in MHz
Fig. 3. shows the frequency-domain representation of
measured results prior to deconvolution. If these are compared
with the deconvolved magnitude result (Fig. 4.) it is clear that Fig. 5. Phase response of the VSA after deconvolution.

the errors in the multisine waveform are the dominant feature.

The phase response is shown in Fig. 5.
 VII. DISCUSSION
We have outlined the strategy for a new measurement
technique to provide traceability to primary standards for VSA
instruments using commercially available equipment. We
have demonstrated that the measured results show good
agreement and are self-consistent for several multisine
waveforms.
With this technique, the full instrument bandwidth can be
measured at any operating frequency, subject to limitations of
the equipment. Timebase correction is essential, as the
sampling oscilloscope must capture the full period of the
modulated waveform. The main restriction, when analyzing
the results, is the number of frequencies that can be
conveniently solved, compared with an FFT algorithm.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work is supported by the National Measurement
Office, an Executive Agency of the Department for Business,
Innovation and Skills, UK. We also thank S. Wordingham
(Agilent) and M. Vincent (Tektronix) for providing the VSA
instruments on loan and Dr K Nasr for helpful discussions.
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