Granted Patent B1

US 12,259,409 · App. 18/113,850 · Granted Mar 25, 2025

Inventor: Christos Tsironis (Kirkland, CA)

G01R15/16G01R27/32

Abstract

Claims (27)

1. A harmonic load-pull tuner comprising:

a low loss slotted airline, wherein the low loss slotted airline is a having an input port, an output port, two sidewalls forming a channel, an “S” shaped center conductor, and four remotely controlled mobile carriages #1, #2, #3 and #4, saddled in pairs facing each-other on the two sidewalls across the channel, each of said four remotely controlled mobile carriages holding a metallic tuning probe #1, a metallic tuning probe #2, a metallic tuning probe #3, and a metallic tuning probe #4 respectively, which its keep inserted into the channel at fixed penetration and move along the slabline to a position at a distance X from the input port,

wherein the metallic tuning probes are capacitively coupled with the “S” shaped center conductor, and

wherein carriage #1 holds metallic tuning probe #1, carriage #2 holds metallic tuning probe #2, carriage #3 holds metallic tuning probe #3 and carriage #4 holds metallic tuning probe #4, and

wherein the “S” shaped center conductor has a straight mid-section between two end bends which are terminated with coaxial connectors, a first bend at the input port and a second bend at the output port, each said bend having a span B, said “S” shaped center conductor residing in its entire length, including the straight mid-section and the bends, at equal distance between the two sidewalls of the slabline; and

wherein the metallic tuning probes #1 and #3 are inserted from one side of the two sidewalls and the metallic tuning probes #2 and #4 are inserted from the other side of the two sidewalls diametrically into the channel and held at fixed distances from the straight mid-section of the “S” shaped center conductor, sharing the slabline; and

wherein metallic tuning probe #2 can cross over metallic tuning probes #1 and #3 and metallic tuning probe #4 can also cross over metallic tuning probes #1 and #3; and

wherein carriage #1 moves the metallic tuning probe #1 to position X1, carriage #2 moves the metallic tuning probe #2 to position X2, carriage #3 moves the metallic tuning probe #3 to position X3 and carriage #4 moves the metallic tuning probe #4 to position X4.

2. The harmonic load-pull tuner of claim 1 , wherein the straight mid-section of the “S” shaped center conductor is at least one wavelength (k) long at a minimum frequency of operation of the harmonic load-pull tuner.

3. The harmonic load-pull tuner of claim 1 , wherein the four remotely controlled mobile carriages slide along the slabline between the input port and the output port remotely controlled by stepper motors, drive screws and gear and their positions are reset using proximity limit switches.

4. The harmonic load-pull tuner of claim 1 , wherein the metallic tuning probes are withdrawn, capacitively de-coupled from the center conductor by moving them within span of the bends close to the input or output ports, and in particular by placing metallic tuning probe #1 adjacent to the input port within the span of the first bend and metallic tuning probe #4 adjacent to the output port within the span of the second bend, and by placing metallic tuning probe #3 adjacent to metallic tuning probe #1 within the span of the first bend and metallic tuning probe #2 adjacent to metallic tuning probe #4 within the span of the second bend.

5. The harmonic load-pull tuner of claim 1 , wherein the metallic tuning probes are initialized as follows: metallic tuning probe #1 is moved within the span of the first bend, metallic tuning probe #4 is moved within the span of the second bend, metallic tuning probe #2 is moved to position X2=B, and metallic tuning probe #3 is moved to position X3=λ+B.

6. The harmonic load-pull tuner of claim 4 , wherein the metallic tuning probes, when not withdrawn, are capacitively coupled with the “S” shaped center conductor.

7. A calibration method for the harmonic load-pull tuner of claim 5 , comprising the following steps:

a) connect the harmonic load-pull tuner to a vector network analyzer, pre-calibrated at frequencies Fo and 2Fo;

b) initialize all metallic tuning probes;

c) measure s-parameters at Fo and 2Fo and save in an init matrix [SO];

d) in a tuning probe movement and s-parameter measurement loop: move the metallic tuning probe #1 to a multitude M of positions X1 with X1 larger or equal to B and smaller or equal to X(Fo)+B, measure s-parameters Sij at Fo and 2Fo with {i, j}={1,2} and save (X1, Sij) in a file S1;

e) initialize the metallic tuning probe #1;

f) in a tuning probe movement and s-parameter measurement loop: move the metallic tuning probe #2 to multitude M of positions X2 with X2 larger or equal to B and smaller or equal to λ(Fo)+B, measure s-parameters Sij at Fo and 2Fo with {i, j}={1,2} and save (X2, Sij) in a file S2;

g) initialize the metallic tuning probe #2;

h) in the tuning probe movement and s-parameter measurement loop: move the metallic tuning probe #3 to the multitude M of positions X3 with X3 larger or equal to B and smaller or equal to λ(Fo)+B, measure s-parameters Sij at Fo and 2Fo with {i, j}={1,2} and save (X3, Sij) in a file S3;

i) initialize the metallic tuning probe #3;

j) in the tuning probe movement and s-parameter measurement loop: move the metallic tuning probe #4 to the multitude M of positions X4 with X4 larger or equal to B and smaller or equal to λ(Fo)+B, measure s-parameters Sij at Fo and 2Fo with {i, j}={1,2} and save (X4, Sij) in a file S4;

k) retrieve s-parameter and tuning probe position data from files S1 to S4; if (X1<X2) then cascade the invers s-parameter init matrix [SO] −1 with the s-parameters of files S2 to S4 and replace in files S2 to S4; cascade the s-parameters of file S1 with the parameters of files S2 to S4 in the order of increasing X coordinate, else if (X1>X2) then cascade the invers s-parameter init matrix [SO] −1 with the s-parameters of files S1, S3 and S4 and replace in files S1, S3 and S4; cascade the s-parameters of file S2 with the parameters of files S1, S3, S4 in the order of increasing X coordinate, and

l) save in tuner calibration file as (X1, X2, X3, X4, Sij, Fo) and (X1, X2, X3, X4, Sij, 2Fo);

m) terminate.

Assignments (2)

References Cited (14)