A novel noise figure and gain test set for microwave devices

A new instrument for the measurement of noise and gain of microwave devices is presented. It differs from the commercial ones in the accomplishment of the gain measurement and is also useful for measuring mismatched devices such as transistors, The instrument is driven via HP-IB by a PC and a user-friendly virtual panel is designed to perform all the required operations. Also included is the possibility of removing the second-stage noise contribution and correcting various sources of error (source ENR variations, temperature variations, etc.). The test set provides a very good accuracy for both matched and mismatched devices, usually limited by source ENR accuracy and step attenuator repeatability. The performances of the instrument are compared with those offered by commercial instrumentation.