The six-port reflectometer: choosing a calibration method

This paper presents a discussion on four known and frequently employed six-port reflectometer calibration procedures, namely the ones by Glenn Engen (1978), Ghannouchi et al. (1988), Sunil Judah (1985) and Cong-Zhen Qian (1985). The desired features usually sought in a calibration method, like accuracy, ease of calibration and low cost, among others, are discussed for each method above. The procedure introduced by Engen can lead to the determination of the scattering parameters of microwave devices from power measurements only, without the complex circuitry of the heterodyne network analyzer.