InCal Calibration System

Fully Automated In-line VNA Calibration

Key Features• 2-port to n-port capability

• Completely hands-free calibration

• Convenient, thorough, accurate cali-

bration

• Equivalent accuracy and uncertainty

to precision mechanical standards

• Traceable to national and international

standards

• Available in insertable and non-insert-

able confi gurations

Overview

ATE’s InCal product is an in-line calibration system for the Agilent PNA series of

network analyzers that allows the instrument to be calibrated at any time, hands-free,

with or without a device-under-test (DUT) connected, and without having to make any

changes to the hardware confi guration. This allows for:

• fully automated calibration without requiring any user intervention,

• no possibility of user-induced errors,

• calibrations that are performed very quickly, and

• a high level of accuracy.

The system can be confi gured for calibrating systems with any number of test ports,

and the resulting accuracy passes the uncertainty criteria for TRL-level accuracy.

System Accuracy

Accuracy must be defi ned for the system rather than any single sub-system. When

a PNA is calibrated with InCal and verifi ed with the Agilent 85053B verifi cation kit,

the results exceed the specifi cations for all refl ection and transmission parameters

compared to a system calibrated with the Agilent 85052C TRL calibration kit.

Rev. A

InCal Calibration System

System ComponentsA minimum system confi guration includes the following:

Agilent 2-port Network Analyzer

PNA-X, PNA, PNA-L Series Nxxxx

Firmware v 09.33 or higher

Summary Characteristics

Frequency range 10 MHz to 26.5 GHz

Impedance 50 Ohms, nominal

Typical maximum input power +27 dBm

Typical damage level +33 dBm

maximum DC level applied to test port ±10 Volts

Insertion Loss 1.0 dB typical at 2 GHz

2.5 dB typical at 10 GHz

3.0 dB typical at 20 GHz

3.5 dB typical at 26.5 GHz

IP3 +45 dBm at 2 GHz

Weight, FCM 25 g

Weight, ICM 900 g

Dimensions, FCM 38.2 x 21.0 x 13.8 mm

Dimensions, ICM 426 x 64.3 x 46.7 mm

Options

Option Description Comments

Pn Number of test ports n must be 2 or greater

025 ISO 17025 compliant calibration

CC Commercial calibration certifi cate with data

Component Part Numbers

Z1003A ICM 10 KHz to 8.5 GHz

Z1002A ICM 10 MHz to 26.5 GHz

Z1001A FCM 10 KHz to 8.5 GHz

Z1004A FCM 10 MHz to 26.5 GHz

A1001A Module controller 20 ports

Rev. A

ICM

PNA

FCM’s

ICM

PNA

FCM’s

InCal Calibration System

System Confi gurationA typical two-port system confi guration is shown in the diagram below. It consists of an

Agilent PNA, test cables, InCal software, and the InCal hardware. The InCal hardware

includes the Instrument Calibration Module (ICM) which connects directly to the PNA test

ports, and Fixture Correction Modules (FCM’s) which are connected to each port of the DUT.

Multiport Confi gurationInCal is very well suited to calibrating multiport systems, even ones with a very large number

of ports. In this confi guration, as in the 2-port confi guration, the ICM is connected to each

PNA test port, and one FCM is connected to each DUT port.

Rev. A

InCal Calibration System

Calibration ProcessThe calibration process is initiated from the PNA Macro menu that calls the InCal software.

The welcome screen confi rms that

you are about to perform a calibration

using InCal and gives you an

opportunity to exit.

Before actual calibration begins,

the system will verify that all of the

necessary hardware components are

present.

Calibration is fully automated,

with no changes to the hardware

confi guration required to

switch between calibration and

measurement.

On completion the error terms are

uploaded into the PNA so that the

live display show corrected data.

Optionally, the cal set can be saved at

this point.

Rev. A