Traceable phase calibration of a wide-bandwidth microwave Vector Signal Analyzer

Numerous wide-bandwidth and multi-channel applications benefit from accurate test and measurement equipment which minimize the distortion of the generated and analyzed signals. Different techniques are described in literature to achieve this for Vector Signal Analyzers. This paper presents a simple traceable phase calibration technique for wide-bandwidth Vector Signal Analyzers using a comb generator which is able to realize a dense frequency grid up to 40 GHz and above. The comb generator itself is calibrated using a technique which is traceable to electro-optical sampling as primary standard. The calibration procedure is explained in detail showing the characterized phase distortion for different center frequencies and different IF bandwidths of a commercial VSA.