A Shifted Reference Receiver for the Measurement of Phase Noise in Microwave Amplifiers

The present work is devoted to the characterization and measurement of the phase instabilities produced by microwave amplifiers. We describe a special receiver designed for phase noise measurements at low Fourier frequencies. i.e. very close to the carrier in the spectral domain. Phase noise measurements of a microwave amplifier are presented and the noise floor of the receiver is shown and discussed.