A 500 GHz transmitter/receiver system for phase/magnitude measurements

A complete synthesized transmitter and tracking receiver have been built for a frequency of 500 GHz, with a swept bandwidth of >5 GHz. The system uses direct multiplication of a microwave synthesizer, with no intermediate oscillator. Both the transmitter and receiver used the same synthesizer reference, but the transmitter frequency was offset by an upconverter to produce a 3-GHz receiver IF. The receiver reference was derived without the use of a separate receiver channel. With the inclusion of a backend processor, the system was used to make vector reflectivity measurements with high phase and amplitude stability. The transmitter output power was >100 mu W and the receiver noise figure was 15 dB.<>