Series Tee Splitter for Impedance Measurements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022099720-A1
Application number	US-202117479265-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 20, 2021
Priority date	Sep 29, 2020
Publication date	Mar 31, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

A series tee splitter comprises a primary electromagnetic transmission line and a secondary electromagnetic transmission line that is placed in a series path with the primary electromagnetic transmission line, wherein a load is attached to the end of the secondary electromagnetic transmission line and a network analyzer is connected to opposite ends of the primary electromagnetic transmission line to measure a load impedance. This configuration increases the high impedance measurement limit of the network analyzer normally seen for reflection measurements. The series tee splitter can be electrically small to provide broadband impedance information.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A series tee splitter, comprising a primary electromagnetic transmission line and a secondary electromagnetic transmission line that is placed in a series path with the primary electromagnetic transmission line, wherein a load is attached to the end of the secondary electromagnetic transmission line and a network analyzer is connected to opposite ends of the primary electromagnetic transmission line to measure a load impedance.

2 . The series tee splitter of claim 1 , wherein the primary electromagnetic transmission line comprises a microstrip line structure and the secondary electromagnetic transmission line comprises a parallel conductor structure built on a T-shaped substrate with the secondary electromagnetic transmission line on the stem of the T-shaped substrate.

3 . The series tee splitter of claim 1 , wherein the primary and secondary electromagnetic transmission lines have a 50-Ω characteristic impedance.

4 . The series tee splitter of claim 2 , wherein the substrate comprises a low permittivity material.

5 . The series tee splitter of claim 4 , wherein the substrate has a relative permittivity of less than 10.

6 . The series tee splitter of claim 4 , wherein the low permittivity material comprises acrylonitrile butadiene styrene.

7 . The series tee splitter of claim 1 , wherein the network analyzer comprises a vector network analyzer or scalar network analyzer.

8 . The series tee splitter of claim 1 , wherein the load impedance can be up to 10 MΩ from 5 Hz to 1 kHz.

Assignees

• Nat Tech & Eng Solutions Sandia Llc

Inventors

• Halligan Matthew
• Bowman Tyler

Classifications

• G01R27/04 Primary

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

• G01R27/32

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

• G01R27/025

  Measuring very high resistances, e.g. isolation resistances, i.e. megohm-meters · CPC title

• H01R24/547

  Splitters · CPC title

• H01R9/05

  for coaxial cables · CPC title