Uncertainty evaluation of balanced S-parameter measurements

This paper describes the development of a calibration kit for measuring the scattering parameters (S-parameters) of balanced devices on a printed circuit board (PCB) substrate as well as the estimated uncertainty up to 25 GHz. The calibration kit is composed of a thru, reflect and a set of transmission lines to calibrate a Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) using the Thru Reflect Line (TRL) calibration technique. This work has been carried out through electromagnetic simulations using the Computer Simulation Technology (CST) software. The uncertainties of the S-parameters of each standard are estimated and finally propagated to the S-parameters of the device under test (DUT) using the Monte Carlo method.