Contactless Flanges and Rail System for mm Wand THz Testing

In millimeter-wave (mmW) component engineering and manufacturing processes, it can be a constant struggle to achieve good calibration and measurement accuracy and repeatability. Furthermore, it is even more challenging to accurately and consistently characterize devices in a volume production setting where testing speed and data reliability are essential. The contactless flange is a good solution to this problem. It can be electrically connected to a device under test (DUT) without full mechanical contact and without tightened screws. There are two types of contactless flanges, i.e., the choke flange and the pin-array flange. In this paper the performance of three typical contactless flange designs is presented and compared, especially in consideration of possible misalignment. Additionally, a rail positioning system integrated with contactless flanges is proposed to minimize the alignment efforts during waveguide component testing. The rail positioning system has been successfully integrated with mmW frequency extenders for vector network analyzers (VNAs) to ease and improve mmW and THz testing.