Hybrid harmonic source pull tuner system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12052008-B1
Application number	US-201916509936-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jul 12, 2019
Priority date	Jul 12, 2019
Publication date	Jul 30, 2024
Grant date	Jul 30, 2024

Abstract

A hybrid, active-passive, harmonic source pull tuner system employs the Gamma Boosting Unit (GBU) concept and associated calibration and monitoring algorithms to allow for real source pulling operation. The GBU concept itself does not provide knowledge of the source impedance without proper calibration and monitoring. The hybrid tuner system includes a single or multi-probe source tuner and adjustable coupling allowing steering the impedance to the optimum device matching area.

First claim

What I claim as my invention is:

1. A hybrid harmonic source pull tuner, having an input port and a test port, comprises a cascade of a passive tuning section and an active signal feedforward section;
wherein
the passive tuning section comprises
a slide screw tuner with an input port connected with the input port of the harmonic source pull tuner, an output port connected with the test port of the harmonic source pull tuner, a slabline between the slide screw tuner ports and at least one tuning probe;

and wherein
the active signal feedforward section comprises an amplifier connected in parallel with a cascade of two directional signal couplers, an adjustable signal coupler and a fixed signal coupler, each said signal coupler having an input, an output, a coupled and an isolated port and both being integrated in the slabline of the slide screw tuner;

and wherein
the signal couplers are connected back-to-back, the output port of the adjustable signal coupler being connected to the input port of the fixed signal coupler;

and wherein
an input port of the amplifier is connected to the coupled port of the adjustable signal coupler, wherein said coupled port is located between the at least one tuning probe and the fixed signal coupler, and an output port of the amplifier is connected to the coupled port of the fixed signal coupler, which said coupled port is located next to the output port of the slide screw tuner.

2. The hybrid harmonic source pull tuner of claim 1 ,
wherein
the slide screw tuner comprises:
N≥1 remotely controlled mobile carriage(s), sliding along the slabline, each said mobile carriage including a remotely controlled vertical axis mechanism, on which is attached an associated reflective tuning probe which is insertable into a slot of the slabline.

3. The hybrid harmonic source pull tuner of claim 2 ,
wherein
the adjustable directional signal coupler includes an electro-magnetic coupling loop,
which is remotely movable along and insertable into the slot of the slabline; and wherein
the fixed directional signal coupler includes a fixed electro-magnetic coupling loop inserted into the slot of the slabline.

4. The hybrid harmonic source pull tuner of claim 3 ,
wherein
the electro-magnetic coupling loop of the adjustable directional signal coupler is attached to a remotely controlled vertical axis mechanism of the remotely controlled mobile carriage sliding along the slabline.

5. A calibration method performed using the hybrid harmonic source pull tuner of claim 4 at a frequency Fo and a number of harmonic frequencies N×Fo comprising:
a) connect a pre-calibrated Vector Network Analyzer between the input port and the test port of the hybrid source pull tuner;
b) withdraw all tuning probes and the electro-magnetic coupling loop of the adjustable directional signal coupler from the slabline;
c) measure s-parameters of the hybrid harmonic source pull tuner at all frequencies N×Fo and save in an initialization matrix;
d) in a first control loop:
move the tuning probe, which is closest to the input port of the slide screw tuner, to a multitude of positions along and perpendicular to the slabline, measure s-parameters of the hybrid harmonic source pull tuner and save;

e) withdraw the tuning probe, which is closest to the input port of the slide screw tuner;
f) if N>1:
in a series of N−1 control loops:
move each tuning probe, except the tuning probe of step d), to a multitude of positions along and perpendicular to the slabline, the remaining tuning probes remaining withdrawn, measure s-parameters of the hybrid harmonic source pull tuner at all frequencies N×Fo and save;

g) withdraw all tuning probes from the slabline;
h) in a last control loop
move the electro-magnetic coupling loop of the adjustable directional signal coupler to a multitude of positions along and perpendicular to the slabline, measure s-parameters of the hybrid harmonic source pull tuner at all frequencies N×Fo and save;

i) cascade the s-parameters of steps f) and h) with the invers of the initialization matrix [S0(NFo)] −1 and save;
j) cascade all permutations of s-parameters acquired in steps d) and i) and save in a tuner calibration file.

Assignees

• Tsironis Christos

Inventors

• Tsironis Christos

Classifications

• G01R27/32

  in circuits having distributed constants {, e.g. having very long conductors or involving high frequencies} · CPC title

• G01R27/28

  Measuring attenuation, gain, phase shift or derived characteristics of electric four pole networks, i.e. two-port networks; Measuring transient response (in line transmission systems H04B3/46) · CPC title

• G01R35/005

  Calibrating; Standards or reference devices, e.g. voltage or resistance standards, "golden" references (G01R33/0035, G01R35/002 take precedence) · CPC title

• G01R31/2822

  of microwave or radiofrequency circuits (of attenuation, gain, e.g. using network analyzers G01R27/28) · CPC title

• G01R31/2607

  Circuits therefor (G01R31/2642 takes precedence) · CPC title