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VNA Concepts and Features
R&S
®
ZNL/ZNLE
221
User Manual 1178.5966.02 ─ 07
This means that Z-parameters can be used as an alternative to S-parameters (or Y-
parameters) to characterize a linear n-port network completely.
2-Port Z-Parameters
In analogy to S-parameters, Z-parameters are expressed as Z
ij
, where i denotes the
measured and j the stimulated port.
The Z-parameters for a two-port are based on a circuit model that can be expressed
with two linear equations:
2
22
1
21
2
2
12
1
11
1
I
Z
I
Z
V
I
Z
I
Z
V
Meaning of Z-parameters
The four 2-port Z-parameters can be interpreted as follows:
●
Z
11
is the input impedance, defined as the ratio of the voltage V
1
to the current I
1
,
measured at port 1 (forward measurement with open output, I
2
= 0).
●
Z
21
is the forward transfer impedance, defined as the ratio of the voltage V
2
to the
current I
1
(forward measurement with open output, I
2
= 0).
●
Z
12
is the reverse transfer impedance, defined as the ratio of the voltage V
1
to the
current I
2
(reverse measurement with open input, I
1
= 0).
●
Z
22
is the output impedance, defined as the ratio of the voltage V
2
to the current I
2
,
measured at port 2 (reverse measurement with open input, I
1
= 0).
Z-parameters can be easily extended to describe circuits with more than two ports or
several modes of propagation.
8.3.3
Admittance Parameters
An admittance is the complex ratio between a current and a voltage. The analyzer pro-
vides two independent sets of admittance parameters:
●
Converted admittances (each admittance parameter is obtained from a single S-
parameter)
●
Y-parameters (complete description of the n-port DUT)
Measurement Results
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