Low profile high speed load pull tuner system
OwnerChristos Tsironisinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A load-pull test system uses controller, interface, calibration method and at least one low profile, two-probe, slide screw impedance tuner; the tuner probes share the same slabline; they are inserted anti-diametrical at fixed depth (distance from the center conductor) from both sides into the channel and move only horizontally along the slabline. The tuner does not have adjustable high precision vertical axes controlling the penetration of the probes and its low profile is optimized for on-wafer operations. The carriages holding the probes are moved at high speed along the slabline using linear electric actuators. An efficient de-embedding calibration method serves speeding up additionally the measurement procedure.
Claims7
A load-pull tuner system comprising
- a) an automated two-probe slide screw tuner,
- b) a system controller, and
- c) a calibration method,
- wherein
- a) the slide screw tuner comprises
- a low loss slotted airline (slabline) having an input port, an output port, two sidewalls forming a channel, and a center conductor, and
- two remotely controlled mobile carriages 1 and 2, mounted anti-diametric to each-other on top and bottom of the sidewalls across the channel, moving along the slabline and holding each a tuning probe, said tuning probes sharing the same section of the slabline,
- wherein
- the tuning probes are inserted anti-diametric into the channel at fixed
- distances from the center conductor,
- and wherein
- carriage 1 moves probe 1 to position X1, and
- carriage 2 moves probe 2 to position X2;
- b) the system controller comprises
- a central processor, electronic memory, electronic interface for motion control of the carriages and communication, instrument control and data collection software;
- c) the calibration method comprises
- tuner-control, s-parameter acquisition routines and data processing algorithms.
An automated two-probe slide screw tuner comprising
- a low loss slotted airline (slabline) having an input (test) port, an output (idle) port, two sidewalls forming a channel, and a center conductor, and two remotely controlled mobile carriages 1 and 2, mounted anti-diametric to each-other on top and bottom of the sidewalls across the channel, moving along the slabline and holding each a tuning probe, said tuning probes sharing the same section of the slabline,
- wherein
- the tuning probes are inserted anti-diametric into the channel at fixed distances from the center conductor,
- and wherein
- carriage 1 moves probe 1 to a position X1, and
- carriage 2 moves probe 2 to a position X2;
- and wherein
- the tuning probes are attached to the mobile carriages using a swiveling joint, and the slabline is extended, beyond a maximum distance XMAX=λ/2 from the test port at the minimum frequency of operation, by short ramped up sections allowing the tuning probes to be withdrawn when the carriages move beyond XMAX.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.