Measurement of high power devices with CMT VNA

The VNA output ports are capable of sustaining a pre-defined output power level as provided in the datasheet of the manufacturer. Exceeding the power ratings of the VNA ports can lead to incorrect measurement and even cause damage to the VNA. The high input power requirement of the Device under Test (DUT) introduces challenges to the measurement, such as overheating and calibration.

Moreover, different measurement techniques, such as load-pull analysis and noise figure measurement require higher input power than the maximum output power of the VNA. Therefore, a booster amplifier is required to boost the input power of the DUT. Then, due to the high reverse isolation of the amplifier, the forward reflection measurement is not possible. To overcome the limitations, Copper Mountain Technologies (CMT) offers Planar 814/1 with Direct Receiver Access (DRA) capability to the reference and measurement receivers. The DRA capability enables the accurate forward reflection coefficient measurement when using a booster amplifier. This application note describes the measurement setup for measuring the s-parameters of the high power devices with DRA to the reference and the measurement receivers.