Measurement and Analysis of the Circuit Delay of CEI System

Abstract

By using a four port Vector Network Analyzer (VNA), a caesium clock, a time-interval counter and a signal source to measure the delay of CEI system segmentally. Design measuring methods respectively for three segments of the circuit. When measure the delay, it is found that, delay of antenna’s amplifier output port to the input port of down converter (DC) is stable; the fluctuation of DC’s delay is less than 2ns; the cable delay’s standard deviation is stable at 0.1ns; we get a nanosecond accuracy for whole system. The methods of time delay measurement and the design of CEI system will provide a foundation and primary data for future deep space missions.