Six-Port Reflectometer Providing Enhanced Power Distribution

Abstract

A six-port reflectometer providing an improved power distribution is proposed. The developed six-port network allows for a significant enhancement of the measurement accuracy without increasing the complexity of the reflectometer’s network. The proposed six-port has been theoretically analyzed, designed in a stripline technique with the use of single-section coupled-line directional couplers, and fabricated. For the experimental verification, the developed six-port has been utilized in reflection coefficient measurements in a wide frequency range, 2.5–3.5 GHz. The obtained results are very close to the reference values measured using a vector network analyzer. Furthermore, the same measurements have been performed utilizing the classical six-port reflectometer operating within the same frequency range. The comparison clearly shows that the proposed six-port reflectometer provides a significantly higher measurement accuracy with respect to the classical solutions.