Plasma Noise Sources of Improved Accuracy

Gas discharge tubes and waveguide mounts have been developed as reference standards of noise for S-, C-, and X-band in WR284, WR137, and WR90 waveguide. Their design and development are described and details of their performance are given. Particular attention has been paid to reducing the spread of noise output. At S- and X-band an overall absolute accuracy close to ± 0.1 dB has been achieved for all possible combinations of tube and mount.