Microwave Tests Benefit from Correlation for Accuracy in the Hand
Tom Hoppin from Agilent Technologies explains how to correlate microwave measurements between handheld and benchtop analysers to achieve higher accuracy in the field
As more and more technicians and engineers head into the field to make measurements in less than hospitable conditions, the need for accurate handheld measurement instrumentation has become all the more acute. For many, however, “precise microwave measurements” conjures up images of benchtop instrumentation in a laboratory setting.
The latest handheld instruments offer technicians and engineers the ability to make accurate microwave measurements of network, spectrum, power, and frequency with results
that correlate to within hundredths of a dB.
To discover if a handheld offers comparable performance to that of a benchtop analyser, examining the specifications found on the vendor’s datasheets is a natural place to start, however, it may be difficult to directly compare the two since specifications are often listed under unique operating conditions.
The handheld, for example, may be specified for harsh operating conditions, while its benchtop counterpart may be specified for temperature-stabilised environments. Even examining technical literature with cited examples comparing benchtop instruments to handheld ones is difficult since such material is often very limited.
Bridging this gap requires the actual correlation of measurements recorded using several benchtop instruments to measurements recorded using a handheld.
Full article by Richard Wilson, Electronics Weekly News
About the Author
Roger Chu is the Marketing Coordinator at GSAmart, the leading GSA sales and marketing partner for technology companies.
