Narrow Pulse Measurements on Vector Network Analyzers
Author: Bert Schluper
Publication: AMTA 2014
Copyright Owner: NSI-MI Technologies
This paper investigates practical aspects of measuring antennas operating with pulsed RF signals of very narrow width, down to 0.1 μs or less. The current generation of network analyzers provides very high IFBW, theoretically allowing measurement of very narrow pulses. But in practice there are several factors that limit the minimum pulse width, including IF path filtering, receiver dynamic range, trigger synchronization issues and test/reference path delays. The paper will compare the performance of both narrow-band and wideband pulse measurements on a Keysight PNA.