Microwave network analyzers

A network analyzer is a high-performance measuring device designed to characterize an active or passive multiport component or device that is assumed to be linear, such that it can be fully defined by a matrix of complex parameters: impedance matrix, admittance matrix, chain matrix, scattering matrix, etc. This characterization is generally performed over a wide frequency band (50 GHz). The measurement results and associated quantities, as a function of frequency, are usually displayed directly on the analyzer's display screen.

In this report, we focus particularly on heterodyne analyzers (whose receiver operates at intermediate frequencies) for microwaves (or hyperfrequencies), where measuring voltages and currents becomes problematic and less important than understanding power propagation: this is why network analyzers are designed to measure transmission and reflection factors in relation to a reference impedance, or the dispersion parameters (S parameters) of the multiport network.