Accurate Probing of RF Amplifiers Using Vertical Interconnect Boards

Printed circuit boards with plug-in pins and edge-connectors for insertion into appropriate sockets on a mother-board are used in the electronics industry as functional circuit blocks. For example, functions such as additional RAM can be added to a personal computer by inserting cards with edge connectors to mate with the CPU mother-board. In RF amplifiers used in high-speed data transmission, video communication and broadband cable television, plug-in circuit boards save considerable real estate on the mother-board and facilitate plug-and-play convenience. At RF and microwave frequencies, it is very important to characterize the pin-socket interface on the mother-board so that the influence of its mismatch and other parasitic effects can be incorporated in the circuit design. In this paper, we discuss a calibration technique to compensate for such mismatch, and present measured data on a high-gain amplifier.