Slide screw tuners with offset tuning probes and method
View Patent ↗A passive slide screw load pull tuner structure can be used on-wafer, in millimeter-wave frequencies from 25 to 110 GHz and above. It uses special tuning probe brackets and a short slabline mounted below the tuner housing, which holds the control gear. The tuner is mounted under an angle matching the angle of the wafer-probe, is connected directly of the wafer-probe and ensures optimum tuning range.
1. A load pull tuner with merely to improve the grammatical form and externally mounted slabline, comprising
a) a tuner body,
b) a slabline, mounted externally to the tuner body, and having a center conductor, a test and an idle port,
c) at least one, parallel to the slabline sliding, mobile carriage, said at least one carriage having a perpendicular to the slabline movable axis holding metallic tuning probe(s), which are insertable into a slot of the slabline;
wherein
the tuning probe(s) is/are attached at the perpendicular to the slabline movable axis using extension brackets, and wherein,
at initialization, the tuning probe(s) is/are positioned adjacent to each-other next to the test port,
and wherein,
the total length of the slabline is approximately one half of a wavelength at the lowest frequency of operation plus the total width of the probe(s) in parallel to the slabline length direction.
2. The tuner of claim 1 ,
wherein
the test port of the slabline is the test port of the tuner and can be connected directly to a wafer probe.