PICO PicoVNA 106 User Manual Download

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User's Guide

pv106ug r1

Vector Network Analyzer

PicoVNA™ 106

Distribution in the UK & Ireland

Lambda Photometrics Limited

Lambda House Batford Mill
Harpenden Herts AL5 5BZ
United Kingdom

E:   [email protected]
W:   www.lambdaphoto.co.uk
T: +44 (0)1582 764334
F:   +44 (0)1582 712084

Distribution in the UK & Ireland

Lambda Photometrics Limited

Lambda House Batford Mill
Harpenden Herts AL5 5BZ
United Kingdom

E:   [email protected]
W:   www.lambdaphoto.co.uk
T: +44 (0)1582 764334
F:   +44 (0)1582 712084

Summary of Contents for PicoVNA 106

Page 1: ...ill Harpenden Herts AL5 5BZ United Kingdom E info lambdaphoto co uk W www lambdaphoto co uk T 44 0 1582 764334 F 44 0 1582 712084 Distribution in the UK Ireland Lambda Photometrics Limited Lambda Hous...

Page 2: ...etwork analyzer basics 10 1 Introduction 10 2 Structure of the VNA 10 3 Measurement 11 4 S parameters 11 5 Displaying measurements 14 6 Calibration and error correction 14 7 Other measurements 15 1 Re...

Page 3: ...steps for S11 and S21 measurements 41 5 Calibration steps for all S parameters measurements insertable DUT 42 6 Calibration steps for all S parameters measurements non insertable DUT 42 7 Calibration...

Page 4: ...Contents III 2017 Pico Technology pv106ug r1 2 Routine maintenance 63 8 Performance specification 64 9 Troubleshooting guide 68 10 Warranty 70 Index 71...

Page 5: ...WARNING identifies conditions or practices that could result in injury or death A CAUTION identifies conditions or practices that could result in damage to the product or equipment to which it is conn...

Page 6: ...tages or environmental range CAUTION Exceeding the overvoltage protection range on any connector can cause permanent damage to the instrument and other connected equipment CAUTION To prevent permanent...

Page 7: ...encies that could interfere with the operation of other equipment or radio control and communications To prevent injury or death connect only to appropriately specified connectors cables accessories a...

Page 8: ...cloth dampened with a solution of mild soap or detergent in water Do not allow liquids to enter the instrument s casing WARNING To avoid equipment damage do not block the ventilation ports on the inst...

Page 9: ...es refer to Software installation for more details 2 2 Loading the calibration kit s If the device to be tested is insertable one female and one male connector two kits are required Otherwise a single...

Page 10: ...3 Setting up calibration parameters Click Calibration to open the Calibration window 2 4 Setting up display parameters Click Display in the main window to open the Display Set Up window When finished...

Page 11: ...ment Best accuracy and 100 dB dynamic range 100 Hz None 3 dBm Set bandwidth to 100 Hz during measurement General use fast speed 90 dB dynamic range 1 kHz None 0 dBm Set bandwidth to 1 kHz during measu...

Page 12: ...bridge components which provide the necessary directivity in both directions Signal detection is by means of analog to digital converters used to sample the IF signal The sample data is processed by t...

Page 13: ...PicoVNA 106 6 GHz Vector Network Analyzer 9 2017 Pico Technology pv106ug r1 Front panel of the PicoVNA 106 Back panel of the PicoVNA 106...

Page 14: ...rough a directional coupler or directional bridge before being applied to the DUT The directional output of the coupler which selects only signals reflected from the input of the DUT is connected to t...

Page 15: ...nd good phase noise performance The ability to measure phase is also important for determining phase distortion in a network Phase distortion can be important in both analog and digital systems In dig...

Page 16: ...s of data depends on the parameters that have been measured o A 1 port measurement measures the reflected signal from the device under test and usually produces three columns If the format is MA magni...

Page 17: ...955 0 01955 28 95 0 98309 55 15 0 98337 55 10 0 018 1 75 62 94 0 02775 24 98 0 98058 72 29 0 98096 72 29 0 0199 6 07 77 925 0 03666 11 76 0 97874 89 46 0 9803 89 45 0 02169 23 06 92 91 0 04159 6 32 0...

Page 18: ...the chart The Smith chart 4 6 Calibration and error correction Before accurate measurements can be made the network analyzer needs to be calibrated In the calibration process well defined standards a...

Page 19: ...arameters may be derived from these including H Y and Z parameters 4 7 1 Reflection parameters The input reflection coefficient can be obtained directly from S11 is the magnitude of the reflection coe...

Page 20: ...Operation on phase data to yield underlying characteristics 4 7 4 Group delay Another useful measurement of phase is group delay Group delay is a measure of the time it takes a signal to pass through...

Page 21: ...tant Errors in either phase or amplitude cause errors in the constellation diagram 4 7 7 Time domain reflectometry TDR Time domain reflectometry is a useful technique for measuring the impedance of tr...

Page 22: ...ay be reflected back to the source The signals are measured in the time domain by the sampling scope By measuring the ratio of the input voltage to the reflected voltage the impedance of the load can...

Page 23: ...corresponds to the time it takes the signal to pass down the line to the short and back again If the velocity of the signal is known the length of the line can be calculated where v is the velocity of...

Page 24: ...at are similar to the traditional TDR measurements made with a time domain reflectometer using a step signal and can also compute the response to an impulse It provides both magnitude and phase inform...

Page 25: ...width of the analyzer Also the analyzer gathers data at discrete frequencies The result of the sampled nature of the data and the truncation in the frequency domain is to produce a sin x x response wh...

Page 26: ...a general guide it is recommended that an adaptor with at least 64 MB of memory is used 5 2 Software installation Follow the Quick Start Guide to install the software from the disk or from www picotec...

Page 27: ...ee of the four in each of the male and female cal standards An insertable device is one that has connectors of different sexes at its ports On the other hand a calibration for a non insertable device...

Page 28: ...ation below where Freq is the operating frequency Generally with typical open circuit standards the effect is small amounting to no more than a few degrees of phase shift at 6 GHz Copen C0 C1Freq C2Fr...

Page 29: ...us Frequency MHz S11 real S11 imaginary 1 0 1 7265E 03 7 7777E 05 There must be 201 data lines Typically these should cover the band 1 MHz to 6 00 GHz No empty or comment lines are allowed 30 995 1 65...

Page 30: ...These must be a full set of S parameters real and imaginary To add matched load short and open or through adaptor data to a calibration kit follow the steps below Load kit using the Kit Editor see Ca...

Page 31: ...he measurement results are plotted together with the readout of the markers One two or four plots can be displayed simultaneously The plots can be configured to display the desired measurements User i...

Page 32: ...under Parameter Graph Type Select the vertical axis values from the Vertical Axis section Optionally click Autoscale to automatically set the sensitivity and reference values Note that reference posi...

Page 33: ...ure below There are four possible marker modes as follows Active marker The active marker is the marker used for comparison when the delta marker mode switched on by selecting a reference marker is on...

Page 34: ...up form provides a Peak Minimum Search facility This places marker 1 at either the peak or minimum value on the displayed trace on the active channel when the corresponding Find button is pressed The...

Page 35: ...cy a sufficient number of sweep points should be used This will ensure a fine enough resolution to allow accurate determination of the band points 6 1 3 Measurement enhancement The measurement enhance...

Page 36: ...bration is carried out at the same test level as it is intended to use for the measurement Whenever the test level is different to that used for the calibration a will be added to the calibration stat...

Page 37: ...equested impedance conversion will performed on the live measurement and any stored memory trace There are two possible ways of using the System Z0 Conversion facility For example 75 devices can be me...

Page 38: ...e following table A warning will be displayed in such cases S11 S12 S21 S22 10 6 j0 0 10 6 j0 0 10 6 j0 0 10 6 j0 0 Table Values assumed for parameters not available during Z0 conversion 6 1 4 Memory...

Page 39: ...e loaded For example if segment 1 is specified to cover say 400 to 800 MHz then a second segment can be specified to a section of this band for example 500 to 600 MHz This would result in a total of t...

Page 40: ...strument serial number Calibration status S11 S21 S11 S21 12 terms or U T A question mark indicates that the test power has been changed from that used for calibration Test signal power This is the Po...

Page 41: ...istance is about 500 6 1 9 Measurement start stop The measurement Start Stop buttons see figure are used to start or stop the instrument s sweep mode measurement mode This is necessary as functions wh...

Page 42: ...shown here Instrument calibration is carried out through the Calibration window Before starting calibration select the preferred enhancement settings bandwidth and averages Note The frequency sweep i...

Page 43: ...ion S11 S21 S12 S22 using 12 term error correction Table Calibration types supported The unknown through calibration 8 error terms requires only a reciprocal through adaptor Here is the basic calibrat...

Page 44: ...device If this is not the case an adaptor will be needed during the measurement and its effect will need to be removed by either moving the reference plane or by using the de embedding facility as ind...

Page 45: ...ple S21 calibration is a frequency response calibration Sometimes it is referred to as normalization and only corrects for response characteristics of instrument and external connections The typical s...

Page 46: ...olation is measured with 50 loads on each calibration port which is the same as the load step in 5 above 7 Connect ends of test cables together and click Through 8 Click Apply in Calibration window 9...

Page 47: ...that for best dynamic range when using the enhanced isolation calibration method each of the short open and load steps need to be made at the same or lower resolution bandwidth that will be used for...

Page 48: ...measurements S11 the VNA must be calibrated as described before either S11 calibration only both S11 and S21 or 12 term The device to be tested DUT is then connected to Port 1 of the VNA as indicated...

Page 49: ...rangement shown on the right Displaying the results The measurement result can be displayed by selecting the S21 parameter and an appropriate display graph and described in Reference plane extension a...

Page 50: ...perturbations from the trace Care should be exercised to ensure that genuine sharp group delay variations are not masked by the smoothing Displaying the results Group delay of any S parameter can be m...

Page 51: ...s the time domain response of a 50 cm 50 coaxial cable with an open circuit termination The trace goes to 1 relative to the reference indicating a reflection coefficient of 1 for an open circuit The w...

Page 52: ...y However the displayed total time span must be less than 166 66 ns The plot below shows the same cable terminated with a short circuit The window is fifth order Kaiser Bessel This time the trace goes...

Page 53: ...short circuit The window is third order Kaiser Bessel The trace shows the multiple reflections from the discontinuity of impedance at the connection between the lines and the short circuit terminatio...

Page 54: ...sponse or rise time of amplifiers filters and other networks Examples Expected responses from simple RC networks Measured TDT for 100 pF series capacitor Measured TDT for 100 pF shunt capacitor 6 3 6...

Page 55: ...device mounted on a microstrip test jig with SMA connectors In order to remove the effect of the interconnecting line to the input of the device the following procedure may be followed Perform an S11...

Page 56: ...Connect the through microstrip test line between Ports 1 and 2 of the VNA Display the phase of S21 on a non active channel keep active channel for S11 Start the measurement and store data on the S21...

Page 57: ...the instrument measures the test jig After first calibrating as usual follow the steps below to enable de embedding 1 Select the S parameter file s that represent the embedding network s by clicking...

Page 58: ...saving data in Touchstone format ensure that you provide the file name extension when entering the file name Typically for 1 port networks the extension s1p is used and s2p for 2 port networks This w...

Page 59: ...lities control windows 6 8 Saving graphics The graphics shown on the main window can be saved in bmp png gif tif or jpg formats This allows measurement results to be directly pasted into most electron...

Page 60: ...riations associated with the instrument s hardware The procedure is simple as shown below Ensure that an S21 or S11 S21 or 12 term calibration has been carried out Connect Port 1 to Port 2 as shown on...

Page 61: ...e power sweep 20 dBm at Port 1 and that at least 0 7 dB of gain compression is reached at the end of the sweep 0 dBm at Port 1 A will be displayed if insufficient compression has been achieved After t...

Page 62: ...ach frequency point The format must be as follows Frequency MHz magnitude dB phase degrees Note The number of lines in the file must match the number of sweep points in the sweep plan 6 11 AM to PM co...

Page 63: ...ion the AM to PM factor at the specified input power entered will be displayed in the text box in the Measure section of the window Figure Calibration left and test connections for AM to PM test Note...

Page 64: ...s of text file as illustrated below The definition is made up of several segments Each segment refers to reflection REFLECTION or transmission TRANSMISSION with an entry for the applicable range in dB...

Page 65: ...lows In the above UI is the uncertainty associated with the PicoVNA 106 VNA and UR is that provided with the reference DUT 6 13 Closing down the software It is recommended that a formal shut down of t...

Page 66: ...ule We recommended that you compare the measured results with the values provided with the standards and verify that they are within the combined uncertainty of the instrument and the provided measure...

Page 67: ...req 2 MHz Freq 2 MHz 2 0 1 5 15 12 Table Transmission S21 S12 measurement uncertainty 7 2 Routine maintenance Ventilation grilles Check that all ventilation grilles are clear of any debris dust or any...

Page 68: ...ersion Display channels 4 channels CH1 CH2 CH3 CH4 Traces 2 traces channel Display formats Amplitude logarithmic and linear phase group delay VSWR real imaginary Smith chart polar time domain Memory t...

Page 69: ...Isolation calibration refreshed as described in 6 2 7 See figure below Temperature stability typical 0 02 dB C f 4 GHz 0 04 dB C f 4 GHz Trace noise mdB RMS Full band Test level 0 dB 201 point sweep...

Page 70: ...ting resolution 0 1 dB Output power accuracy 2 0 dB max Group delay Range 180 maximum phase shift per frequency step where f is the aperture frequency Aperture frequency Frequency sweep step size Accu...

Page 71: ...iscellaneous Temperature range operating 15 C to 35 C Temperature range storage 20 C to 50 C Humidity 80 max non condensing Power source DC 12 to 15 V 1 85 A max Dynamic range 10 MHz to 6 GHz Dynamic...

Page 72: ...ay and calibrate Exit the software using File Exit menu command This will save the current calibration in a file named defaultcal cal Diagnostics Tests under Tools menu fail Data corruption Restart in...

Page 73: ...hannel activity indicators have stopped flashing to continue with the tests Calibration error terms and raw receiver data The diagnostic tests dialog figure above also provides the facility for retrie...

Page 74: ...Technology shall not be liable for a breach of the warranty if the defect has been caused by fair wear and tear willful damage negligence abnormal working conditions or failure to follow Pico Technol...

Page 75: ...easurements 14 E Environment 3 Error correction 14 Error messages 22 F Frequency sweep settings changing 40 G Getting started 22 Grounding 2 Group delay measurement 46 H Humidity 3 I Insertion loss ga...

Page 76: ...ng 4 Signal generator utility 56 S parameters 11 Specifications 64 Status panel 36 Structure of the VNA 10 Sweep trigger output 37 Switching on the VNA 23 T TDR bandpass method 20 lowpass method 20 Te...

Page 77: ...PR China sales picotech com support picotech com pico china picotech com Asia Pacific head office Tel 44 0 1480 396 395 Fax 44 0 1480 396 296 USA headquarters UK headquarters Tel 1 800 591 2796 Fax 1...

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