Howtosignalprocessing
A VNA measures the power of a high-speed signal going into and coming back from a component or a network, because power, in contrast to voltage and current, can be measured accurately at high frequencies. Both amplitude and phase of the high-frequency signal are captured at each frequency point.
What is a VNA test?
What is a VNA? Vector network analyzers (VNAs) are test instruments that measure electrical network parameters. They are essential for radio frequency (RF) and microwave component analysis of various passive and active devices including filters, antennas, and power amplifiers.
What does VNA stand for in RF?
A Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) is much like a multimeter that measures resistance. But where a multimeter measures a resistor at DC (0 Hz), a VNA measures resistance of an RF or microwave circuit at their operating frequency, measuring both the resistance and the phase (they make up a Vector) of the circuit.
Why use VNA?
The advantage of using a large signal VNA is that it can provide a more accurate measurement of the device's performance, under actual operating conditions. The input and output signals of a device, under test, can be very different from the signals that are measured in a laboratory environment.
How does a VNA measure phase?
To accomplish these measurements, a VNA consists of one or more generators and typically two coherent selective receivers for each test port. Therefore, a VNA can be used as a multiple receiver system to measure the phase between several signals.
