Reducing the Cost of Load Pull Measurements
Brochures
Reducing the Cost of Load Pull Measurements
Keysight Technologies and Maury Microwave
Achieve high accuracy non-50Ω load pull measurements at lower cost
A load pull system is used to study the behavior of a device-under-test (DUT) when presented with varying source and/or load impedances at one or more frequencies in a controlled manner.
For transistor designers, load pull is an essential tool to characterize and model transistor technologies and designs. For amplifier and circuit designers, load pull is helpful in determining the ideal impedance match for maximum performance under application-specific conditions. For system engineers, load pull can be used to test the robustness of a system under mismatched conditions.
Modern load pull solutions based on vector-receivers such as those found in commercial network analyzers allow for the direct measurement of calibrated a- and b-waves at the DUT reference plane. From these waves, it is possible to directly measure large signal input and output impedances as well as calculate available and delivered input power, output power, transducer and power gain, drain and power added efficiencies, and vector-parameters such as AM/PM and droop.
As Keysight’s highest performance mid-range VNA, the N523xA PNA-L is ideally suited for lower cost vector-receiver load pull when combined with Maury Microwave’s LXI-certified automated impedance tuners and IVCAD measurement and modeling device characterization software.
With this solution, Keysight’s benchtop instruments are now viable for lower cost device characterization.
Add-ons are available from Maury Microwave to extend the solution’s capabilities to include pulsed-RF, pulsed-bias, active- and hybrid-active tuning, and harmonic load pull.
- Load pull measurements using lower cost Keysight PNA-L VNAs
- Provides accurate measurement of vector a- and b-waves and S- parameters
- Measure input and output fundamental and harmonic powers, gain, efficiency, AM/PM and more
- Sweep impedance, power, bias, frequency
- Measurements de-embedded to DUT reference plane
- Automate measurements for advanced sweep plans in the same way as its higher cost ultra-performance products.