Pulsed VNA Measurements: When And Why Do I Need To Re-Calibrate?

By Walt Strickler

This is the final installment of a guest series written by Walt Strickler of Anritsu Company.

Overview

As all engineers know, calibration is fundamental to making accurate measurements. Historically, calibration times have been relatively long, slowing throughput and increasing the cost of test. Knowing when measurement configuration changes require new calibrations is important to minimize test time. This can be especially tricky when making pulsed VNA measurements.

VNA advances and improved techniques, however, have helped to reduce calibration time and how often they must be made. This is evident with the Anritsu VectorStar™ MS4640B Vector Network Analyzer (VNA), which features a high-speed digitizer approach that combines improved measurement resolution and timing accuracy with the ability to independently adjust receiver timing to significantly reduce the need for recalibration and minimize uncertainty.