A Combined Measurement Stand for Linear, Nonlinear and Noise Measurements of Microwave Devices and Circuits

A novel approach is presented for a measurement system which is able to investigate the most relevant specifications of microwave circuits and components. The test stand is configured for on wafer measurements up to 60GHz, but can also be used for connectorized device measurements. The main measurement capabilities of the system are: Two and three port scattering parameters, noise figure and noise parameters of two port devices, power and gain measurements including harmonic power and harmonic impedances, all mixer parameters including conversion noise, active load pulling and the spectrum and phase noise of oscillators. Furthermore, a new calibration method has been developed which allows the measurement of absolute values of all power waves at the device under test without frequency converting standards. The system operates in combination with an automatic wafer probing system. The control software for the prober can be integrated in the measurement system software giving the capability of performing wafer mapping of MMIC´s.