Comparisons of Algorithms for Broadband Continuous Extraction of Complex Propagation Constant Involved in Various Microwave Measurements

摘要

Propagation constant characterization plays a key role in various microwave measurement situations such as thru-reflect-line (TRL) calibration, interconnect characterization, fixture de-embedding and measurement of material properties. To differentiate the forward and backward propagating factors, sign-ambiguity problem of square-root searching is inevitable in the process of characterizing the eigenvalue problem associated with electrical measurements of test lines. There are several algorithms proposed for broadband continuous extraction of complex propagation constant. This paper compares the robustness of three algorithms using the experimental data of test lines with both low and high insertion loss.