Automated Network Analyzers for the 0.9- to 12.4-GHz Range

New automated measuring instrumentation has been developed for making network and component characterizations in the microwave frequency range from 0.9 to 12.4 GHz. The development was stimulated by characterization requirements growing out of the design of new communication systems and the redesign of older systems. These systems are achieving greater capacity due to advances in technology, both in the areas of improved analysis and improved components. These advances have led to requirements on measurements at micro691 wave frequencies that heretofore had been needed only at lower frequencies. This new instrumentation was implemented as an extension to the Computer Operated Transmission Measuring Sets (COTMS)1 operating in the Transmission Technology Laboratories at Bell Laboratories. This implementation avoids the duplication of costly common equipment and allows the utilization of many of the proven COTMS measurement techniques. T h e microwave instrumentation, in concert with the COTMS system, is intended for the characterization of linear two-port networks, either active or passive. Measurement terminals are provided for networks with either coaxial or waveguide terminals. Provision is made for complete four-parameter characterization of network elements such as transistors (e.g., H parameters, Y parameters). T h e full 0.9- to 12.4-GHz frequency range is covered by two microwave systems of very similar design. The lower frequency system, completed in November 1972, covers the range 0.9 to 4.2 GHz.* Its first applications were in characterizing solid state components.