Signal measurement systems and methods

1. A measurement system for conducting measurements on a device-under-test (DUT), wherein impedance is controlled or varied over a set of measurement conditions and a parameter or set of parameters measured for each measurement condition, the system comprising:

a passive impedance controlling tuner;

a signal transmission line, the passive impedance controlling tuner including a signal transmission line segment as at least part of the signal transmission line;

a signal coupling device coupled in a non-contacting relationship to the signal transmission line between a signal port of the DUT and the passive impedance controlling tuner for sampling signals propagating between the passive impedance controlling tuner and the DUT to allow measurement of an actual impedance presented to the DUT with the DUT in place in the measurement system during measurement of DUT characteristics;

measurement system equipment for receiving response signals from the signal coupler; and

wherein the measurement system is configured to conduct said measurement of DUT characteristics without pre-characterizing said passive impedance controlling tuner.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the signal coupling device is mounted in a fixed position relative to the DUT.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the signal coupling device is a separate device relative to the passive impedance controlling tuner.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the signal coupling device is integrated with the passive impedance controlling tuner.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the DUT is selected from the group comprising power transistors, power FETs or other power amplifying devices, small-signal low noise transistors, amplifying devices, frequency translating devices, frequency multipliers, two-terminal devices, three-terminal devices, and mixers.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the passive impedance controlling tuner is selected from the group consisting of slide-screw tuners, double slug tuners, stub tuners and solid state tuners.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the passive impedance controlling tuner is manually controlled.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the passive impedance controlling tuner is automated with computer control.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the signal coupling device is selected from the group consisting of a directional coupler, a directional bridge, a voltage-current probe, or a directional current probe.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein said DUT characteristics comprises a set of load pull parameters.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the signal coupling device is adapted to allow measurement of phases and amplitudes of said sampled signals.

12. A method for using a measurement system including a passive impedance-controlling tuner and a signal transmission line, the tuner including a signal transmission line segment as at least part of the signal transmission line, the method comprising a sequence of the following steps:

coupling a signal coupling device in a non-contacting relationship to the signal transmission line of the measurement system to allow measurement of an impedance presented to a device-under-test (DUT) with the DUT in place;

for DUT measurements, without pre-characterizing the tuner, setting the impedance tuning to a setting;

using the signal coupling device to measure an actual impedance presented to the DUT after the impedance tuning setting is set; and

conducting measurements of the DUT using the measurement system.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein said setting the impedance tuning further comprises:

setting the tuner to a new tuner impedance determined by an offset between a target impedance and the measured actual impedance;

measuring an actual impedance presented to the DUT at the new tuner impedance setting; and

iterating said steps of setting the tuner to a new tuner impedance and measuring the actual impedance until a desired impedance accuracy is achieved.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein said conducting measurements of the DUT comprises:

measuring a set of load pull parameters.