This article is part of our IMS 2022 coverage.
Navneet Kataria, Product Marketing Mgr., gives us a close-up look at a 4-port, 70-kHz to 220-GHz VectorStar VNA. A transcription of the booth visit follows:
MWRF: It’s David Maliniak at IMS2022. I’m at the Anritsu booth with Navneet Kataria. Navneet’s going to give us a quick look at Anritsu’s single-sweep, broadband VNA, 70 kHz to 220 GHz. Tell us about it, Navneet.
Navneet Kataria: Hi, and welcome to Anritsu’s booth. Today, we are showing our state-of-the-art, 4-port, 70-kHz-to-220-GHz single-sweep vector network analyzer, as you can see here. This is the main VectorStar, which sweeps from 70 kHz to 220 GHz, and this is the four-port test set. The 4-port test set can be upgraded by customers anytime they want, so anybody can start with the 2-port measurement and, later on, upgrade the system to a 4-port.
Below that, we have our test set for controlling the mmWave modules. The VNA is supplying the signal up to frequencies of 54 GHz, and then as you proceed through the setup, we have our mmWave modules here attached to the main VNA. The multiplication of the frequencies happens within these very small mmWave modules that you can see here.
Our multipliers are all made by Anritsu here in the U.S., and it’s based on a patented technology called Nonlinear Transmission Line technology. That technology helps us to minimize the size of the mmWave modules, and the calibration and measurement accuracy and stability is really something that nobody else can achieve in today’s world. This setup is particularly easy to set up for on-wafer device characterization. Because if you have bigger modules and you have to have very long and lossy cables in between the modules, like the multipliers, and the wafer device, that leads to negative raw directivity and also leads to degradation of the dynamic range.
What we were able to do with these small miniature modules, we can actually get rid of those cables and do a direct connection on the probes onto the device. That is why this technology is very famous for the mmWave market. A lot of customers are using this setup, especially for doing D-band research and on-wafer device characterization, especially for active and passive.
Now the latest addition that we have done onto our product offering, is we have collaborated here on the right-hand side, you can see, with MPI. We have provided our customers with a differential probe, as you can see here. This probe comes in various pitches like 50 micrometers, 75, and 100. And this has a GSGSG, basically on there. So we can basically make differential measurements. This is what I was referring on the other side. Here are the two modules, which sweep from 70 kHz right up to 220 GHz, and then we have the signal being routed here and coming to this probe, which can be directly connected to the wafer, like the device which is on wafer. Then, the signals from here are routed back to the VNA and we can make differential measurements from 70 kHZ to 220 GHz.
That is what we are showing this time at IMS. One more thing we are going to launch very shortly, coming back to the VectorStar, we have recently launched, or will be launching, an application which is called a spectrum analyzer. This would be the world’s first 70-kHz-to-220 GHz sweeping spectrum analyzer. People who are trying to see harmonics and any other IMD or two-tone measurements, and they want to see the IMD concepts, they can use this spectrum analyzer to actually sweep from 70 kHz right up to 220 GHz. This is the world’s first 220-GHz spectrum analyzer, VNA-based. This is what we are showing at our booth this time.