Improved Microwave Noise Measurements Using Ferrites

The ferrite isolator and the ferrite circulator have been applied separately to improve the accuracy of measuring small microwave noise powers or small power differences. Either the isolator or the circulator effectively isolated the input circuit of a microwave receiver from the impedance of the source. As a result, the measurement errors introduced by mismatched source impedances were reduced by as much as 98 per cent. The added input circuit losses of the ferrite components reduced the receiver sensitivity by only about 10 per cent. Since the accuracy of measuring small noise power differences was limited principally by impedance errors, the addition of ferrite isolation to the receiver input circuit increased the sensitivity of measurement to near the theoretical limit. The ferrite isolator was used as a passive transmission element in these experiments. The ferrite circulator, however, was used as an electrically-operated, microwave switch. This switch was used to replace the mechanical chopper in a Dicke-type radiometer. In addition to impedance isolation, the ferrite switch makes possible rapid comparison measurements of the microwave noise powers from any two sources, or of the noise powers from the same source in two different polarizations.