A straight forward method of characterizing the intrinsic loss characteristics of symmetrical two port networks

A method for characterizing the intrinsic loss characteristics of a symmetrical two port network using a two tier calibration procedure is presented. A first tier calibration to device fixturing ports results in symmetry. The second tier calibration uses a single through line. The resulting characterization is equivalent to the transmission factor of the network with ideal input and output matching networks. This has the effect of putting two ideal matching networks at the input and output of the network. A microstrip bandpass filter measurement and characterization using this technique is presented. The results are compared with deembedded characterization obtained using the TRL calibration procedure.