I2MTC 2009 - International Instrumentation and Measurement

Technology Conference
Singapore, 5-7 May 2009

Determination of the Reference Impedance of Line

Attenuator Reflect for On-Wafer Vector Network
Analyzer Calibration
Mebrouk Bahouche1,2, Eric Bergeault2 and Djamel Allal1
1

Laboratoire National de Mtrologie et d'Essais (LNE)

29 avenue Roger Hennequin,, 78197 Trappes, France
2
Dept. Comelec, TelecomParistech
46 rue Barrault, 75634 Paris cedex 13, France

AbstractA determination of the reference impedance for the

three standards Line-Attenuator-Reflect (LAR) on-wafer vector
network-analyzer (VNA) calibration is proposed. As a result, it is
shown that the reference impedance to which the LAR
calibration is referred cannot generally be determined. Based on
this consideration, a modified LAR calibration allows a precise
determination of the reference impedance so that the calibration
accuracy is improved. Measurement results, compared to those
obtained using the conventional multiline TRL calibration, show
the efficiency of the proposed method up to 45 GHz.
Keywords-component;
Calibration,
scattering parameters, standards.

I.

reference

impedance,

INTRODUCTION

The conventional Thru-Reflect-Line (TRL) [1] method for

which the reference impedance is equal to the characteristic
impedance of the line standard is widely used for scattering
parameters measurements. The value of the characteristic
impedance on low-loss substrates can be obtained from the
knowledge of the propagation constant and the capacitance
C of the line [2]. This makes the TRL calibration more
suitable for establishing traceability to the SI units. The
bandwidth limitation of the TRL method can be overcome
with the multiline TRL technique [3], which also provides a
reduction of the random errors. On the other hand, the
multiline TRL requires expensive dedicated space on the
wafer and time consuming measurements.
That is the reason why, Lxx calibration techniques such as
Line-Reflect-Match (LRM) and LAR appear to be attractive
[4]. The main problem encountered when using these
methods, is to accurately determine the reference impedance,
i.e the match load standard impedance or the attenuator
standard input and output impedances. While LRM and LAR
implementations are more practical, complementary
measurements or reliable lumped electrical models of the
standards are needed in order to accurately set the reference
impedance.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the accuracy of
the on-wafer Line-Attenuator-Reflect (LAR) calibration
method.

978-1-4244-3353-7/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE

An earlier approach [5] was proposed to take into account

the nonideal values of the attenuator standard. The principle
consisted in measuring the S-parameters of the nonideal
attenuator after applying a multiline TRL calibration
procedure in order to determine the reference impedance of
the calibration. Unfortunately, this method is not
straightforward and is time consuming.
In this work, the method developed by Williams and
Marks for LRM calibration using nonideal standards is used
[6]. Additionally to the Line-Reflect-Match measurements, a
second line is required in order to accurately characterize the
non-ideal match and line standards after applying the
conventional TRL method. This technique is applied to the
LAR calibration leading to the determination of the nonideal
coplanar waveguide attenuator using a polynomial
interpolation method.
Consequently, it is possible to obtain an accurate wideband
calibration with a compact standard set realized with a thruline, a reflect, an attenuator and a second line of moderate
length. The method is implemented using MATLAB software.
Z1

Zin

Z1

Z2

Zout

Figure.1 T-attenuator

II.

DETERMINATION OF THE REFERENCE IMPEDANCE

For a symmetrical Tattenuator, the reference impedance

of the LAR calibration is Zin = Zout = Z0 [4]. Zin and Zout are
the input and output impedances of the attenuator,
respectively.

the input-output impedance (Z0) of the symmetrical T

attenuator (Figure1) is given by:

Z 0 = Z1

calibration leading to an accurate knowledge of the reference

Z0 for the LAR calibration method.
MEASUREMENT RESULTS

III.

1+ N
1 N

(1)

where N is the attenuation factor (transmission coefficient

S12) which can be determined using the LAR calibration
technique. N is obtained from the trace value of matrix:

P = M2M1-1 (2)

For these experiments a set of CPW calibration standards,

was realized on a gallium arsenide substrate. The artifacts
consisted of a Coplanar-Waveguide (CPW) thru line 550m
long, four lines (2.685 mm, 3.75mm, 7.115 mm, and 20.245
mm), and two shorts offset (0.125 mm from the beginning of
the line). We also fabricated different reference attenuators
(3dB, 6dB, 10dB, 20dB, 30dB and 40dB) embedded in the
CPW thru line (Figure 2).

where M1 and M2 are the measured transmission matrixes of

the thru and the Attenuator standards, respectively.
Consequently, an accurate determination of Z1 is required in
order to compute the value of Z0.
After applying the TRL calibration, measurement of the Sparameters of the attenuator standard provides the ABCD
parameters of the chain matrix:

Z1
1+
A B Z
2
[ABCD] =
=
1
C D

Z2

Z 2
2 Z1 + 1
Z2
Z1
1+

Z2

Figure 2: Topology of a coplanar T- attenuator

(3)

Consequently, Z1 is obtained from the following expression:

These artifacts were fabricated with a 0.4m evaporated

gold film adhered to the 450 m gallium arsenide substrate
with an approximately 1000 nm titanium adhesion layer. The
lines have a center conductor of width 64 m separated from
two 260 m ground planes by 42 m gaps.

A 1
(4)
Z1 =
C

We first measured the four calibration standards consisting

of a thru line, a 10 dB attenuator, a reflect and a second line
(2.685mm). The thru and reflect standards required for the
TRL calibration are also used for the LAR calibration.

Finally, the reference impedance Z0 is deduced from equation

(1). In practice, for on wafer measurements, the value of Z0 is
different from 50 due to imperfect standards behavior. The
real and imaginary parts of Z1 are frequency-dependent [6]
and can be modeled using polynomials:

Figure 3 shows the measurement results for the real and

imaginary parts of the attenuation factor N directly obtained
from the LAR calibration.

imag ( Z 1 ) = b0 + b1

0.35

(5)

Real Part

real ( Z ) = a + a + a
1
0
1
2

0.355

0.345
0.34

(6)

0.335

In fact, and compared to a conventional LAR calibration set,

only an additional line is required to perform a TRL

10

15

20
25
Frequency (GHz)

30

35

40

45

10

15

20
25
Frequency (GHz)

30

35

40

45

0.025
Imaginary Part

Therefore, the coefficients ai and bi and the order of the

polynomials are obtained by fitting, in a least squares error
sense, the measured data to the model equations (5) and (6).
Consequently, it is possible to normalize S parameters to 50
by computing the transformation relations due to a change
of reference impedance.

0.02
0.015
0.01
0.005
0

Figure 3: Real and Imaginary parts of the attenuation factor N

All the measured values are very close to the theorical

values (N=0.32, Z1=25.9) showing a good process control for
the realization of the attenuator.

Fitted values
Measured values
30

Real Part (Ohms)

29

Figure 5 shows the measurement values of the reference

impedance Z0 of the LAR calibration using equation (1).
54

53.5

53

52.5

Imaginary Part (Ohms)

31

capacitance C was determined from the reflection coefficient

and DC resistance of a lumped resistor [7]. Consequently, it is
possible to normalize S parameters to a 50 reference
impedance.

Real Part (Ohms)

Figure 4 shows the measured (obtained after applying the

TRL calibration) and the fitted values (obtained from
equations (5) and (6)) of the real and imaginary parts of
impedance Z1 (for the 10 dB attenuator). The peak value
observed around 26 GHz is due to a phase difference of 180
between the thru and Line transmission measurements. In fact,
it is a common practice to have a phase difference between
20 and 160 [1]. Consequently, inaccurate measurements
occur between 25GHz and 30 GHz. Therefore, a polynomial
interpolation is required between these two frequencies.

10

15

20
25
Frequency (GHz)

30

35

40

45

10

15

20
25
Frequency (GHz)

30

35

40

45

2
1.5
1
0.5
0

28

27

Figure 5: Real and Imaginary parts of the reference impedance (Z0)

26

25

24

10

15

20
25
Frequency (GHz)

30

35

40

45

3
Fitted values
Measured values

Imaginary Part (Ohms)

In order to estimate the accuracy of the different

calibration techniques, measurement results can be compared
to those given by the multiline TRL calibration using the
method described in [8]. Then, we obtain the upper bound
| Sij_LAR - Sij_multilineTRL | for S-parameters measurements of any
passive device, where Sij_LAR and Sij_multilineTRL are the
measurement results obtained with the LAR and the multiline
TRL calibration techniques, respectively.
In order to show the accuracy of the method, we also
compared the TRL calibration to the multiline TRL
calibration.

0
-1
-2
-3

-4
-5

10

15

20
25
Frequency (GHz)

30

35

40

45

Figure 4: Real and Imaginary parts of the impedance Z1 for the 10 dB

attenuator standard (10dB). Fitted values are plotted in solid lines.

Improvement of the accuracy of the LAR calibration is

estimated by performing measurements using a multiline TRL
calibration with five lines of different length. The
characteristic impedance of the lines was found from the
capacitance and propagation constant of the lines. The

Figure 6 presents the experimental results. For the classical

LAR calibration, measurement deviations are found to be
greater than 0.1 over the whole frequency band. This result
was expected because the reference impedance of the LAR
calibration remains unknown and different from 50 , leading
to inaccurate measurements. On the other hand, this is not the
case for the multiline TRL calibration which provides the
reference impedance which is equal to the characteristic
impedance of the line. Transforming measurements to a 50
reference impedance provide accurate measurements..
Moreover, the measurement deviations obtained with the
modified LAR calibration technique do not exceed 0.05,
unlike the results obtained with a TRL calibration around
26GHz for which the phase differences between the Thru and
Line connections are a multiple of 180. The same results are

observed when using different attenuators (3dB, 6dB, 20dB,

30dB and 40dB) to perform the modified LAR calibration.

The authors wish to thank Isabelle Roch-Jeune from IEMN

(Institut of Electronics, Microelectronics and Nanotechnology)
for her valuable assistance in performing the fabrication of the
calibration artifacts.

0.35
|Sij-TRL -Sij-Multiline|
|Sij-TRL -Sij-Multiline| (Before change of Z0 of LAR calibration )
|Sij-TRL -Sij-Multiline| (After change of Z0 of LAR calibration )

0.3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

REFERENCES

Upper bound error

0.25

[1]

0.2

=
0.15

[2]
0.1

[3]

0.05

10

15

20
25
Frequency (GHz)

30

35

40

45

Figure 6. Maximum differences between measurements of passive devices

from
LAR (conventional and modified) and TRL calibrations and the
multiline calibration

[4]

[5]

[6]

IV. CONCLUSION
LAR calibration technique can be performed using a
symmetrical and matched coplanar attenuator, a coplanar line
and a reflect. Furthermore, the reference impedance (input
impedance of the attenuator) of the calibration can be
accurately determined and characterized without the need of a
full multiline TRL calibration.
In fact, only an additional line is required compared to a
classical LAR calibration set. Therefore, accurate broadband
LAR calibrations can be achieved using compact sets of
calibration artifacts.

[7]

[8]

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