Microwave connector characterization

Coaxial connectors can be used either to probe the electrical properties of microwave circuits (e.g., microstrip, stripline) or as a permanent interface to the circuit. When used as a permanent interface, connectors can degrade circuit performance unless their electrical properties are characterized and accounted for during circuit design. Although it is more common to characterize microwave devices using scattering parameters (Collin, 1966) S
_ij
, we have chosen to utilize impedance parameters since they simplify the derivation of equations presented in this article. The proposed measurement-based method for connector characterization is exact in the sense that its theoretical foundation uses no approximations or assumptions