Methods for calibrating an impedance tuner, for conducting load pull measurements, and for measuring data for noise parameters

1. A method of calibrating an impedance tuner by measuring data with an instrument to determine a set of s-parameters of the impedance tuner at multiple impedance tuner states, with the impedance tuner connected in a test setup including the instrument, the method comprising:

(i) setting an impedance tuner state to one of the multiple tuner states;

(ii) setting a sweep parameter to a value in a set of multiple sweep parameter values, wherein said sweep parameter is frequency;

(iii) measuring data at said tuner state and sweep parameter value;

(iv) repeating steps (ii) and (iii) for a different sweep parameter value in said set of multiple sweep parameter values until data has been measured for all sweep parameter values in said set;

(v) changing the tuner state to another of said multiple tuner states;

(vi) repeating steps (ii), (iii), (iv) and (v) until data has been measured for each of said multiple tuner states,

wherein the data is measured as a function of the sweep parameter for said set of parameter values for one tuner state at a time.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the impedance tuner is a mechanical tuner, and each of said multiple tuner states corresponds to one mechanical setting of said mechanical tuner.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

selecting said set of tuner states to vary reflection magnitude and phase, to produce a set of impedances at every sweep parameter value such that reflection magnitude and phase positions corresponding to the different tuner states are separated in an impedance plane at every sweep parameter value.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the impedance tuner is a mechanical slide screw tuner with a mismatch probe and a tuner center conductor, and said tuner states include a set of tuner states with the mismatch probe positioned at various distances from the center conductor, each set having a different impedance magnitude.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein and each of said set of tuner states is selected at a probe position for an approximate center frequency of the mismatch probe to produce a satisfactory reflection coefficient magnitude spread of points over an operating frequency band of the mismatch probe.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein said tuner is a solid state tuner, using a plurality of solid state control elements, and wherein a first control parameter value is primarily used for a magnitude control, and a second control parameter value is primarily used for a phase control.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the first control parameter is the current drive of one control element, and the second control parameter is a selection of which of said plurality of solid state control elements to drive.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein sections of said control elements are connected by couplers.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tuner states are selected for phase steps that are non-uniform.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the method is practiced using a mechanical slide screw tuner, and carriage positions are selected with logarithmic spacing.

11. An automated test setup, wherein the method of claim 1 is implemented by computer software algorithms installed on the test setup.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein steps ii through iv are done by triggering a sweep on the instrument, and collecting the data for the entire sweep from the instrument.

13. A method for conducting load pull measurements of a non-linear device-under-test (DUT) with a test setup including a impedance tuner whose s-parameters have been calibrated as in claim 1 , comprising:

measuring load pull data with the DUT in place;

using the s-parameters of the impedance tuner to de-embed the tuner from the DUT measurements.

14. A method for conducting load pull measurements of a device-under-test (DUT) with a test setup including a impedance tuner, comprising:

measuring load pull data with the DUT in place over multiple impedance tuner states and for multiple sweep parameter values at each tuner state;

wherein said measuring load pull data comprises:

(i) setting an impedance tuner state to one of the multiple tuner states;

(ii) setting a sweep parameter to a value in a set of multiple sweep parameter values;

(iii) measuring data at said tuner state and sweep parameter value;

(iv) repeating steps (ii) and (iii) for a different sweep parameter value in said set of multiple sweep parameter values until data has been measured for all sweep parameter values in said set;

(v) changing the tuner state to another of said multiple tuner states;

(vi) repeating steps (ii), (iii), (iv) and (v) until data has been measured for each of said multiple tuner states,

wherein the data is measured as a function of the sweep parameter for said set of parameter values for one tuner state at a time.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein said sweep parameter is frequency.

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein said sweep parameter is bias applied to a device under test.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the impedance tuner is a mechanical tuner, and each of said multiple tuner states corresponds to one mechanical setting of said mechanical tuner.

18. The method of claim 14 , wherein said tuner is a solid state tuner, using a plurality of solid state control elements.

19. A method of measuring data for noise parameters in a test setup including an impedance tuner, comprising:

(i) setting a tuner state to one of a set of tuner states;

(ii) setting a sweep parameter to a value in a set of multiple sweep parameter values;

(iii) measuring data at said tuner state and sweep parameter value;

(iv) repeating steps (ii) and (iii) for a different sweep parameter value in said set of multiple sweep parameter values until data has been measured for all sweep parameter values in said set;

(v) changing the tuner state to another of said tuner states in said set of tuner states;

(vi) repeating steps (ii), (iii), (iv) and (v) until data has been measured for each of said tuner states in said set of tuner states,

wherein the data is measured as a function of the sweep parameter for said set of parameter values for one tuner state at a time, and

wherein steps (ii) through (iv) are done by triggering a sweep on an instrument of the test setup, and collecting the data for the entire sweep from the instrument.