System and method for improved resolution pulsed radio frequency (RF) measurements with phase coherence

A system for obtaining radio frequency (RF) measurements for a device under test (DUT), comprising:

• a pulse modulator connectable with the DUT;
• a vector network analyzer (VNA) connectable with the DUT and the pulse modulator;
• wherein the VNA includes a processor and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions thereon that when executed cause the system to
• generate a pulsed RF test signal;
• transmit the pulsed RF test signal to the DUT;
• receive a RF signal in response to the pulsed RF test signal;
• generate an intermediate frequency (IF) signal by downconverting the RF signal received in response to the pulsed RF test signal using a local oscillator (LO) signal;
• shift a phase per unit time change of the LO signal by a prescribed amount over multiple pulses of the pulsed RF test signal for a frequency of the pulsed RF test signal;
• sample the generated IF signal at each of the multiple pulses to obtain a sample set for the frequency of the pulsed RF test signal;
• construct measurements from the sample set;
• and
• apply a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) on the measurements constructed from the sample set.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, including instructions stored thereon which when read and executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform the steps comprising:

• generating a pulsed RF test signal;
• transmitting the pulsed RF test signal to a device under test (DUT);
• receiving a RF signal in response to the pulsed RF test signal;
• generating an intermediate frequency (IF) signal by downconverting the RF signal received in response to the pulsed RF test signal using a local oscillator (LO) signal;
• shifting a phase per unit time change of the LO signal by a prescribed amount over multiple pulses of the pulsed RF test signal for a frequency of the pulsed RF test signal;
• sampling the generated IF signal at each of the multiple pulses to obtain a sample set for the frequency of the pulsed RF test signal;
• constructing measurements from the sample set;
• and
• applying a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) on the measurements constructed from the sample set.