This paper presents a novel, three-stage approach to optimum selection of calibration standard lengths for broadband Vector Network Analyzers (VNA). First, an initial standard D-optimal calibration selection problem is reformulated such as to eliminate redundant locally optimal solutions. Second, good quality basic solution to the calibration selection problem is found, as a result of analytic investigation of the problem properties. Finally, a multistep numeric bi-criterion optimization procedure with variable frequency range is proposed to generate a set of candidate solutions, with different relationship of bandwidth and ripple of the normalized determinant of the Fisher matrix. Example results demonstrate high quality of the solutions found and high efficiency of the proposed optimization-based approach.

Date Published: 25 October 2013
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 8903, Photonics Applications in Astronomy, Communications, Industry, and High-Energy Physics Experiments 2013, 89031W (25 October 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2035317

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8903:
Photonics Applications in Astronomy, Communications, Industry, and High-Energy Physics Experiments 2013
Ryszard S. Romaniuk, Editor(s)