In-plane/out-of-plane mixed probe techniques to obtain the RF characteristics of SMA connectors

In this study, a Short-Open-Load-Reciprocal (SOLR) calibration procedure is conducted to obtain the RF characteristics of an adaptor (the traces between the edge of the package and the SMA connectors) on a test board. The RF characteristics are used in a post-processing technique to obtain the true RF performance of the IC inside the package. Due to the unique physical configuration of the adaptor (closely spaced at one end), a mixed coplanar-to-connector measurement technique is needed to obtain the RF characteristics. To the knowledge of the authors, this problem has not previously been studied. After the RF characteristics of the adaptor are obtained herein, the RF performance of SMA connectors, either in-plane (horizontal), or out-of-plane (vertical), is extracted. We found that the horizontally and vertically oriented SMA connectors introduced additional delay, attenuation, and mismatch to the planar traces on the test board. The measurements were made up to 12 GHz.