Differential Circuit Characterization with Two-Port S-Parameters

Sam Belkin

ifferential topology became more popular due to better gain and second-order linearity, superior spurious response performance, and noise immunity. This topology often requires interfacing with single-ended circuits, and usually this is solved with a balun device, which provides balanced-to-unbalanced transformation. Direct characterization of balanced devices requires measurements with an expensive four-port vector network analyzer. Practicing RF engineers also need to determine how amplitude and phase imbalances may affect differential circuit performance. Unfortunately, it is very hard to find good characterization methods as well as imbalance impact evaluation techniques in the RF technical literature. This article was written to help practicing RF engineers solve everyday tasks related to differential circuit characterization with precise and reliable methods, which employ ordinary single-ended two-port vector network analyzers. The article describes useful, practical methods for balanced circuit characterization, particularly differential voltage, commonmode rejection (CMR), insertion loss, and differential impedance based on measuring two-port S-parameters.

Balun transforms input voltage at Port IN (pin 1) to two voltages at Port OP (pin 2) and Port ON (pin 3) represented as vectors AO (V+) and BO (V) in Figure 2. Let us consider these differential voltages V+ and V with a normalized value of one. In an ideal case, they are equal in magnitude and have 180 phase difference; therefore, no summary vector OD is present. The real voltages BO and OC have amplitude imbalance = |OC/AO| and phase imbalance . In this case, vector OD exists and is equal to the sum of the real vectors BO and OC. Vector OE is equal to one-half of vector OD and represents the common-mode voltage vector V cm . The differential voltage vector V diff is the difference between V+ and V vectors. Ideally, when there are no imbalances, V diff is twice as big as vector OA. Real differential voltage may have any normalized value between zero and two. Usually, RF devices are analyzed in terms of power; however, balanced circuit analyses deal with voltages because power is a scalar, not a vector. This is why S-parameters, which are the vectors representing voltage ratio, are widely used in RF analyses, especially for balun characterization.

Differential- and Common-Mode Signals

There are two major kinds of signals in differential circuits: the differential-mode or simple differential voltage V diff and common-mode voltage V cm (see Figure 2). They are defined as follows [1]: the differential-mode signal is a signal applied between the two ungrounded terminals of a balanced three-terminal system the common-mode signal is a signal applied equally to both ungrounded inputs of a balanced amplifier or other differential device.

Balun Basics
A balun is a device that bidirectionally transfers RF signals between an unbalanced RF port and a balanced differential RF port. A typical balun network is shown in Figure 1. This is a transformer type of balun, but all the basics are true for other possible balun realizations. The balun operation can be conveniently represented by the balun vector diagram exposed in Figure 2.
Sam Belkin is with RF Micro Devices. E-mail: sbelkin@rfmd.com.

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Mathematically, these two voltages can be expressed as V diff = V + V 1 V cm = (V + +V ). 2 (1) (2)

balanced network is equal to the difference vector BC and can be calculated as V diff = 1 + 2 + 2 cos(). (6) Differential voltage in decibels when amplitude imbalance is given in decibels and phase error is given in degrees is

Typical voltages in differential topology are shown in Figure 3. Consider a scalene triangle BOD in Figure 2. Here BD is obviously equal to OC, and the angle between BD and BO is equal to . The cosine law allows us to find magnitude of the sought vector OD OD = BO2 + OC2 2 BO OC cos(), (3)

V diff (dB) = 10 log 1 + 10 20 cos

+ 2 10 20 . (7)

180

where BO = 1 and OC = BD = BO = . Keeping in mind that V cm = OE = 0.5OD and substituting BO and OC values into (3) implies 1 = 2

Values of differential voltage in decibels for = 4 to +4 dB and phase error = 0 100 are plotted in Figure 4. The CMRR is simply the ratio of the differential gain over the common-mode gain: CMRR = Gdiff V out V cm 1 OD = = , Gcm V diff V out 2 BC (8)

V cm

1 + 2 2 cos().

(4)

or, in terms of imbalances and , CMRR = (5) 1 2 1 + 2 2 cos () 1 + 2 + 2 cos () . (9)

Analogously, the difference vector BC is equal to BC = 1 + 2 + 2 cos().

The aforementioned difference and sum vectors allow for the determination of the differential voltage and commonmode rejection ratio (CMRR). The differential voltage for

The logarithmic value of CMRR called CMR when amplitude imbalance is given in decibels and phase error is given in degrees, is 2 1 + 10 20 2 10 20 cos 180 1 CMR = 10 log 2 2 1 + 10 20 + 2 10 20 cos 180 (10)

2 IN 1 5

OP

Rbal

Runb

ON

Figure 1. Balun network.

D 180 B Pin3 E

V diff V cm
O Pin5

V+

Figure 2. Balanced circuit vector diagram.

CMR values for || = 0.01 5 dB and = 0 100 are plotted in Figure 5. In the balun, there are two ways of energy transfer (see Figure 1): between input unbalanced port IN (terminal 1 of the balun) and positive output OP (terminal 2 of the balun) between input unbalanced port IN (terminal 1 of the balun) and negative output ON (terminal 3 of the balun). Each of the baluns output terminals 2 and 3 can be treated as an individual single-ended RF port with resistance equal to one-half of differential resistance as shown in Figure 6. It is important to keep load on all ports purely resistive to ensure the best balun performance and bandwidth. To simplify the balun circuit analyC sis, we may name the baluns three ports according to the pin numbers so 0 the input port IN is Port 1, the posiA tive output port OP is Port 2, and the Pin2 negative output port ON is Port 3. Now the difference between input

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power at Port 1 and power delivered to Port 2 is power loss in Port 1 to Port 2 path. The power loss between input Port 1 and output Port 3 is determined analogously. Three balun properties contribute to the total insertion loss. They are resistive (active) power loss, port impedance mismatch (reactive) loss, and phase mismatch loss (PL). The first two will create the transmission loss (TL), and the third one is the PL. Resistive loss is related to finite device quality factor Q, whereas PL is associated with the difference between ideal 180 and actual phase disparity between output voltages. The exact theoretical analysis of the balun insertion loss is complicated, but fortunately there are some practical methods of evalu9 ation that can be realized with a commercially available single-ended 8 network analyzer.

Vdiff 2
+

V+

+ LNA

Vcm
+

Vdiff 2
+

Vdiff

Figure 3. Differential V diff and common-mode V cm voltages.

Differential Voltage

Back-to-Back Method of the Balun Insertion Loss Characterization

Widely used back-to-back measurement setup for balun insertion loss determination is shown in Figure 7 and provides acceptable accuracy for narrowband and high-quality baluns. In this test circuit baluns must be of the same type. Pin 2 of the balun B1 must be connected to pin 3 of the balun B2 and pin 3 of the balun B1 to pin 2 of the balun B2 (usually this is not a problem). Impedances of Port 1 and Port 2 of test circuit must be real (pure resistive). The last requirement may be satisfied by proper network analyzer full two-port calibration and keeping all test fixture connection lines short. To determine the baluns insertion loss, we need to measure the total insertion loss ILbb of two back-to-back connected baluns and then calculate the sought value IL = ILbb . 2 (11)
Vdiff (dB)

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0.1
4 dB 3 dB 2 dB 1 dB 0 dB 1 dB 2 dB 3 dB 4 dB

10

100

Phase Imbalance Andle ()

Figure 4. Differential voltage versus amplitude and phase mismatch.

Common-Mode Rejection 0 10 20 CMRv (dB) 30 40 50 60 70 0.1

In back-to-back test method, mismatches in two of the baluns parts are mutually compensated, therefore phase imbalance cannot be measured. However, since phase error effect starts to be noticeable only after about 2025 of mismatch, high-quality or narrowband devices may be characterized with back-to-back configuration, especially when very high accuracy is not required.

0.01 dB 0.1 dB 0.3 dB 0.5 dB 1 dB 2 dB 3 dB 4 dB 5 dB

1 10 Phase Imbalance Andle () 100

Figure 5. CMR versus amplitude and phase imbalances.

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Three-Port Method of the Baluns Insertion Loss Characterization

When better precision is needed, a three-port method should be used for the baluns evaluation. The connection diagram for this case is shown in Figure 8. In this test circuit, the differential load at the baluns balanced port is replaced with two common-mode loads for each of the OP and ON outputs. Three-port configuration allows usage of complex port loading, which may be helpful when actual load is not purely resistive. Another advantage of this test setup is the opportunity to measure insertion loss for Port1Port2 and Port 1Port 3 paths independently. Both of the baluns insertion loss components TL and PL may be evaluated by measuring S-parameters for all three ports and then inserting them into the RF simulator or by using the simple equations below. Measuring three-port Sparameters is straightforward with a four-port network ana-

2 IN 1 5

OP

R bal/2

R unb

4 3 ON

R bal/2

Figure 6. Three-port balun representation.

Network Analyzer

B1 Port 1 1

OP

ON

5 4

ON

OP

Figure 7. Back-to-back balun test circuit.

lyzer (e.g., use Agilents PNA-L devices) but a bit more complicated with ordinary two-port instruments. In the latter case, it is necessary to first measure the S-parameter set for one pair of the ports, Port 1 and Port 2, then repeat the same for Port 1 and Port 3. In both cases, measured S-parameter files must be saved (e.g., on floppy disk). An S-parameter file measured with a four-port network analyzer is ready to use with an RF simulator or calculations described below. Files measured with two-port instruments should be converted to a three-port S-parameter file, which may be done with a special worksheet, for example, one prepared with Excel or text editor programs. For subsequent computer simulation, a number of measured points taken in the S-parameter file should be carefully chosen not to exceed the allowable RF simulator quantity. Numbers below 1,000 should work for most programs. However, if S-parameters are measured with a two-port network analyzer and obtained data is intended to be hand calculated, a number of points should be reduced. For narrowband devices, 11 points may be enough, whereas for wideband, 26 or 51 may be better. Fewer points speed up analysis but compromise resolution. An example of a three-port S-parameter file measured with a four-port network analyzer for using 11 points within 26 GHz bandwidth is shown in Figure 9. The best results may be obtained with a carefully done calibration of a network analyzer. High-quality short coaxial cables should be used. Calibration with a test board is preferable, but moving calibration planes from cable connectors to the actual balun pins is also possible. Calibration planes may be moved with the port extension feature of the network analyzer not by adjusting an electrical delay. To get better matching for frequencies above 1 GHz, SMA surface mount connectors with coplanar waveguides type of transmission lines should be used for test and calibration boards. Top layer ground plane with vias grid to bottom ground plane is highly desirable. Optimal vias pitch for this grid is 2 mm and vias diameter of 0.30.5 mm is fine up to 10 GHz. To perform full SOLT calibration with test board, four calibration test boards are necessary. All must have the same topology as an actual test B2 board. It is especially important to keep the length of all transmission line traces equal. The calibration 4 board for short calibration must be properly shorted to ground ends of transmission lines. This grounding may be done with wide traces to top 1 layer ground plane and/or vias. In the case of microstrip lines, at least Port 2 two vias to the ground plane must be used. The center of vias must be at the baluns pin location. The

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calibration board for open calibration must have the same pads at the transmission lines ends as the actual board. The calibration board for load calibration must have loading resistors of 0201 or 0402 size at the baluns pin location. For 50 load, two 100 resistors must be soldered at both sides of the trace. The calibration board for thru calibration must have a continuous transmission line from Port 1 to Port 2 with a transmission line from Port 3 terminated at both ends. The described calibration technique will ensure placing calibration planes at the baluns pins with the right phase. Insertion loss of the balun should be measured within about 0.1 dB accuracy and often in wide frequency range, hence right calibration is paramount. Examples of measurements with different setups and calibration techniques will be discussed in the following. When only coaxial cables are included in calibration, calibration planes must be moved from connectors to the baluns pins on the value of boards transmission lines length in millimeters for given boards substrate permittivity. Alternatively, the value of electrical delay into transmission lines in pS may be used. The latter may be easily determined from l 109 eff = , (12) c where l is transmission line length (mm), c is the speed of light, c = 299, 792, 458 m/s, and eff is effective dielectric constant of transmission line substrate and depends on substrate material permittivity and line geometry. Since RF simulation with S-parameter files is straightforward and well described in program manuals, we will concentrate on the hand-calculation process of the baluns loss.

First of all, S-parameters should be measured and then transferred to Excel or text editor. When measured with the twoport network analyzer, S21 parameter for Port 1Port 3 path should be treated as S31 . An example of an aforementioned three-port S-parameter file transferred to Excel worksheet is shown in Figure 10. The measured value S21 is nothing other than a voltage gain from Port 1 to Port 2 by definition. The same is true for S31 and Port 1Port 3 path. Power gain is the voltage gain squared, and the total power delivered to the baluns differential output is the sum of powers at single-ended ports. Keeping in mind that insertion loss is the difference between input and output power and that normalized input power is equal to 1, the TL part of the baluns insertion loss can be determined as TL = |S21 |2 + |S31 |2 or in logarithmic units TL(dB) = 10 log |S21 |2 + |S31 |2 . (14) (13)

Evaluation of power loss associated with phase error is more complicated. First of all, we need to calculate the actual phase error angle using measured S21 and S31 numbers using an S-parameter file converted to Excel = |180 | S21 S31 ||. (15)

Power loss due to phase error is proportional to the difference between ideal vector OA and real vector OC in Figure 2: PL = V real V ideal
2

|S21 |2 + |S31 |2 + 2 |S21 | |S31 | cos () |S21 |2 + |S31 |2 + 2 |S21 | |S31 |

(16) This equation was derived keeping in mind that normalized output voltages V+ and V are the measured S21 and S31 values and that difference vector is calculated with the cosine law. The logarithmic value of phase error related power loss when phase imbalances are given in degrees is PL(dB) =
Port 2

Network Analyzer

10log

|S21 |2 + |S31 |2 + 2 |S21 ||S31 | Cos |S21 |2 + |S31 |2 + 2 |S21 | |S31 |

180

. (17)

2 Port 1 OP 1 5 4

The total balun insertion loss in decibels IL (decibels) is the sum of TL (decibels) and PL (decibels): IL(dB) = 10log |S21 |2 + |S31 |2

3 ON 50?

|S21 |2 + |S31 |2 + 2 |S21 | |S21 | cos |S21 |2 + |S31 |2 + 2 |S21 | |S21 |

2 360

. (18)

Figure 8. Test circuit for three-port method.

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Now an Excel worksheet is allowing for calculation of the baluns actual amplitude and phase imbalances and total insertion loss may be prepared easily by using (15)(20). An example of such worksheet is shown in Figure 11.

Here are presented two sets of measured S-parameters: one was measured with test board included in full SOLT calibration, and the second was measured with test board excluded from calibration. In the latter case, the calibration

# ! ! ! !

MHZ FREQ

S S11 S21 S31 MAG 0.631903 0.514746 0.470871 0.444033 0.599743 0.573192 0.25062 0.646945 0.63494 0.111102 0.666482 0.659191 0.029586 0.671367 0.66047 0.017297 0.671447 0.650836 0.036311 0.66574 0.633634 0.078608 0.666078 0.622426 0.126687 0.674165 0.61288 0.148019 0.691528 0.595103 0.126817 0.709029 0.567394

MA ANG 146.1724 26.88974 152.091 114.7086 1.196613 178.881 86.79623 23.0984 155.0651 62.98824 44.583 131.7219 43.556 63.8983 111.4569 80.5327 81.7643 93.87374 87.6168 99.8658 78.28125 83.9976 117.988 63.1997 88.0183 137.15 48.86017 105.03 155.092 35.46023 129.5 173.046 23.07388

R50.00 S12 S22 S32 MAG 0.51247 0.797994 0.161936 0.595856 0.702927 0.261821 0.643596 0.607108 0.353711 0.663809 0.531613 0.416972 0.672411 0.479136 0.450773 0.673916 0.458706 0.4672 0.673571 0.461681 0.463175 0.672903 0.47935 0.448187 0.679521 0.484587 0.427165 0.699137 0.453295 0.403221 0.725025 0.395458 0.406821 ANG 27.7893 92.62862 110.1246 1.749646 77.42046 91.6557 22.8279 62.65611 70.08436 44.5388 46.92441 47.35223 64.0182 28.00258 26.21765 82.3767 7.927069 6.333034 100.365 11.7715 12.1083 118.851 28.2476 27.6967 137.388 43.166 42.3038 155.336 57.375 58.1416 173.32 74.0107 74.5281 S13 S23 S33 MAG 0.471977 0.161942 0.820308 0.573482 0.263155 0.716539 0.639818 0.356558 0.60424 0.661955 0.419279 0.520763 0.664331 0.451188 0.479195 0.653181 0.464269 0.469912 0.639021 0.456504 0.489483 0.621072 0.437756 0.517361 0.603509 0.41953 0.550649 0.590402 0.400881 0.590754 0.582577 0.406993 0.623051

ANG 152.154 108.9457 92.31633 179.459 90.13516 74.36729 154.0691 68.77169 55.39087 130.9946 46.58674 36.21268 111.1983 26.28744 16.70982 93.94182 7.062664 0.90573 78.7414 10.916 14.0575 63.78196 26.5141 25.2607 50.05052 41.2505 32.3757 36.27603 57.2024 39.2744 23.84691 72.7045 47.5278

2,000

2,400

2,800

3,200

3,600

4,000

4,400

4,800

5,200

5,600

6,000

Figure 9. Three-port S-parameter file measured with four-port network analyzer.

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planes intentionally were not moved to the baluns pins with the purpose of illustration of the effect of this calibration method. Data for magnitude and angle (MA) of S21 and S31 were transformed from measured S-parameter files (compare with

Figures 9 and 10). Numbers for , , and IL (decibels) were calculated with (15)(20). To facilitate worksheet preparation, Excels formulas for , , and IL (decibels) are shown below. Cells letters and numbers correspond to Figure 11, where the first data are placed into row five.

# MHZ FREQ

S S11 S21 S31 MAG

MA ANG

R50.00 S12 S22 S32 MAG ANG 27.7893 92.62862 110.1246 1.749646 77.42046 91.6557 22.8279 62.65611 70.08436 44.5388 46.92441 47.35223 64.0182 28.00258 26.21765 82.3767 7.927069 6.333034 100.365 11.7715 12.1083 118.851 28.2476 27.6967 137.388 43.166 42.3038 155.336 57.375 58.1416 173.32 74.0107 74.5281 S13 S23 S33 MAG 0.471977 0.161942 0.820308 0.573482 0.263155 0.716539 0.639818 0.356558 0.60424 0.661955 0.419279 0.520763 0.664331 0.451188 0.479195 0.653181 0.464269 0.469912 0.639021 0.456504 0.489483 0.621072 0.437756 0.517361 0.603509 0.41953 0.550649 0.590402 0.400881 0.590754 0.582577 0.406993 0.623051 ANG 152.154 108.9457 92.31633 179.459 90.13516 74.36729 154.0691 68.77169 55.39087 130.9946 46.58674 36.21268 111.1983 26.28744 16.70982 93.94182 7.062664 0.90573 78.7414 10.916 14.0575 63.78196 26.5141 25.2607 50.05052 41.2505 32.3757 36.27603 57.2024 39.2744 23.84691 72.7045 47.5278

2,000

0.631903 0.514746 0.470871 0.444033 0.599743 0.573192

146.1724 0.51247 26.88974 0.797994 152.091 0.161936 114.7086 0.595856 1.196613 0.702927 178.881 0.261821 86.79623 0.643596 23.0984 0.607108 155.0651 0.353711 62.98824 0.663809 44.583 0.531613 131.7219 0.416972 43.556 0.672411 63.8983 0.479136 111.4569 0.450773 80.5327 0.673916 81.7643 0.458706 93.87374 0.4672 87.6168 0.673571 99.8658 0.461681 78.28125 0.463175 83.9976 0.672903 117.988 0.47935 63.1997 0.448187 88.0183 0.679521 137.15 0.484587 48.86017 0.427165 105.03 0.699137 155.092 0.453295 35.46023 0.403221 129.5 0.725025 173.046 0.395458 23.07388 0.406821

2,400

2,800

0.25062 0.646945 0.63494 0.111102 0.666482 0.659191

3,200

3,600

0.029586 0.671367 0.66047 0.017297 0.671447 0.650836 0.036311 0.66574 0.633634

4,000

4,400

4,800

0.078608 0.666078 0.622426 0.126687 0.674165 0.61288 0.148019 0.691528 0.595103 0.126817 0.709029 0.567394

5,200

5,600

6,000

Figure 10. Three-port S-parameter file transferred to Excel worksheet.

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For (cell F5): F5 = 20 LOG10(B5/D5) For (cell G5): G5 = ABS(180 ABS(C5 E5)) For IL(dB) (cell H5): H5 = 10 LOG10((B5 2 + D5 2) (((B5 2 + D5 2) + 2 B5 D5 COS(G5 2 3.14159/ 360))/((B5 2 + D5 2) + 2 B5 D5)))
Results for both insertion loss IL (decibels) measurements are represented in Figure 12. The plot measured with the test board included in calibration is in very good accordance with the vendors data, whereas plot obtained without good calibration demonstrates significant ripple, especially in the highfrequency part of bandwidth. This ripple is a sign of poorer matching than with proper calibration. The reason lies in the reactance multiplication property of the transmission line. Even an ideal transmission line will

dramatically change the reactive part of impedance at the opposite end; therefore, any small parasitic reactance will be significantly higher after traveling through the transmission line. Parasitic reactance will compromise the calibration, mismatch the balun, and increase the phase error. Usually, the TL is much higher than PL. From Figure 4, we can see that the phase error related loss became noticeable after about 20 . Assuming no amplitude imbalance is present, V diff will reduce on 1 dB when phase imbalance reaches roughly 55 (see Figure 4). This means that the balun is more tolerable to phase errors than to amplitude imbalance.

Differential Impedance
Often, an RF designer needs to know the differential impedance between positive (pin 2) and negative (pin 3) balun

A 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 F (MHz) 2,000 2,400 2,800 3,200 3,600 4,000 4,400 4,800 5,200 5,600 6,000 F (MHz) 2,000 2,400 2,800 3,200 3,600 4,000 4,400 4,800 5,200 5,600 6,000

HHM1583B1 Balun S-Parameter Data Measured with Test Board Calibration S21 Magnitude 0.514746 0.599743 0.646945 0.666482 0.671367 0.671447 0.66574 0.666078 0.674165 0.691528 0.709029 Angle 26.88974 1.196613 23.0984 44.583 63.8983 81.7643 99.8658 117.988 137.15 155.092 173.046 Magnitude 0.470871 0.573192 0.63494 0.659191 0.66047 0.650836 0.633634 0.622426 0.61288 0.595103 0.567394 S31 Angle 152.091 178.881 155.0651 131.7219 111.4569 93.87374 78.28125 63.1997 48.86017 35.46023 23.07388 (dB) 0.773821 0.393301 0.162693 0.095543 0.142138 0.270803 0.429324 0.588747 0.827815 1.304353 1.935585 (degree) 1.018898 0.077188 1.836528 3.69512 4.644832 4.361986 1.852914 1.18814 6.010557 10.55196 16.11948 IL (dB) 3.12788 1.6226 0.85405 0.56596 0.52812 0.58905 0.7341 0.80407 0.82052 0.83356 0.92241

HHM1583B1 Balun S-Parameter Data Measured Without Test Board Calibration S21 Magnitude 4.89E-01 5.51E-01 6.38E-01 6.39E-01 6.57E-01 6.49E-01 6.81E-01 6.48E-01 6.20E-01 5.81E-01 6.16E-01 Angle 71.224 15.723 35.542 81.698 127.146 175.736 142.061 99.228 61.301 17.039 18.472 Magnitude 5.67E-01 6.07E-01 6.69E-01 6.49E-01 6.55E-01 6.43E-01 6.78E-01 6.55E-01 6.57E-01 6.26E-01 7.09E-01 S31 Angle 111.062 165.671 143.066 96.983 51.347 1.492 43.343 88.996 130.727 177.421 138.271 (dB) 1.28264 0.83811 0.41215 0.1395 0.03066 0.086693 0.044203 0.0936 0.49615 0.63933 1.22746 (degree) 2.286 1.394 1.392 1.319 1.507 2.772 5.404 8.224 12.028 14.46 23.257 IL (dB) 2.51621 1.72906 0.68805 0.81075 0.65255 0.78758 0.35637 0.73034 0.9329 1.4367 0.72204

Figure 11. Excel worksheet for balun parameters calculation.

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outputs. A single-ended network analyzer cannot directly measure differential impedance, but fortunately, there is a way to calculate it from measured S-parameters [2]. First of all, it is necessary to do the proper calibration described previously, then terminate single-ended baluns input port (pin 1) and simultaneously connect the network analyzers ports to the baluns output ports (pins 2 and 3). Two-port Sparameters must be measured with 1151 points resolution and a corresponding s2p file must be saved on floppy disk. The saved file needs to be transferred to a worksheet where the sought differential impedance will be calculated with the following procedure: a) determine reflection coefficient = (2S11 S21 )(1S22 S12 )+(1S11 S21 )(1+S22 2S12 ) (2 S21 )(1S22 S12 )+(1S11 S21 ) (1 + S22 ) (19) b) find serial impedance Zs ZS = Z0 1+ 1 (20)
0 0.5 Insertion Loss (dB) 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 2000

If the option line of the S-parameter file shows DB format, magnitude DBxx is computed as DBxx = 20 log(Mxx ). In this case, value in logarithmic units DBxx must be converted into linear units Mxx = 10
DBxx 20

(27)

and instead of (23), the following formula should be used Sxx = 10

DBxx 20

ej

Axx 180

(28)

S-parameters in RI format do not require any conversion and may be substituted directly into (19). When serial impedance read from the network analyzers screen in actual (nonnormalized) serial impedance Rxx + jXxx format, corresponding S-parameter can be calculated from
Rxx Z0 Rxx Z0 2

Sxx =

1+
2

Xxx Z0 Xxx Z0

2 2

+1

2 j
Rxx Z0

Xxx Z0

+1

Xxx Z0

(29)

c) convert calculated serial impedance ZS = RS + j XS to parallel impedance (see Figure 13) RP = XP = R2 + jX2 S S R2 S R2 + jX2 S S jX2 S . (21) (22)

HHM1583B1 Balun Insertion Loss

Usually, network analyzers measure normalized S-parameters in two major formats: MA and real and imaginary (RI), which are actually two representations of complex numbers. On the screen, measured results are denormalized and shown as serial impedance in R + jX format. Before substituting into (19), Sparameters obtained in MA format should be converted in exponential format Sxx = Mxx e j or in RI format
Axx 180

2,500

3,000

3,500

4,000

4,500

5,000

5,500

6,000

Frequency (MHz) Calibration with Test Board Calibration Without Test Board

Figure 12. Insertion loss measured with two calibration methods.

(23)
Rs

Sxx = Rxx + j Xxx Axx Rxx = Mxx cos 180 Axx Ixx = Mxx sin , 180

(24) (25)
jXs

Rp

jXp

(26)

where xx is the corresponding S-parameter index.

Figure 13. Conversion from serial to parallel impedance.

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Network analyzers measure normalized S-parameters in MA and real and imaginary.

This situation often appears when an RF engineer is doing measurements for one frequency point and is not interested in whole band differential impedance numbers. An example of a Mathcad worksheet calculating differential impedance for measured the balun at 4,000 MHz is shown in Figure 14.

Calculation of differential impedance and plotting results may be tedious, especially for broadband applications. A good RF simulation program may help in this case. An example of RF simulation with an inexpensive but powerful RF simulator LINC2 from ACS (www. appliedmicrowave.com) is shown in Figure 15. The simulation schematic is also represented there for convenience and includes the two-port black box S1 associated with a measured S-parameter file and two unbalanced 50 ports. Sought differential impedance is displayed to the left of the Smith chart for the frequencies that correspond to four markers listed below the Smith chart along with single-ended impedance (from each port to ground). LINC2 displays all

Calculating Differential Impedance Enter Values: F := 4,000 MHz Zo := 50 Ohm S-Parameters in MA Format from Network Analyzer: M11 := 0.458706 A11 := 7.927069 M21 := 0.464269 A21 := 7.062664 M12 := 0.4672 A12 := 6.333034 M22 := 0.469912 A22 := 0.90573 A11 . 180 A21 . 180 A12 . 180 All Angles in Degrees

Convert Degrees in Radians: 11 :=

21 :=

12 :=

22 :=

A22 . 180

Calculating S-Parameters in Exponential Form: S11 := M11.e(11)i S21 := M21.e(21)i S12 := M12.e(12)i S22 := M22.e(22)i

Calculating Differential Reflection Coefficient: := (2 .S11 S21).(1 S22 S12) + (1 S11 S21).(1 + S22 2 . S12) (2 S21) (1 S22 S12) + (1 S11 S21).(1 + S22 ) = 0.33 0.033i || = 0.332

Calculate Differential Impedance in Serial Form: Serial Impedance Zs=Rs+jXs:

Zs := Zo .

1+ 1

Zs := 98.911 7.426i
Conversion to Parallel Form

Rs Rp jXs jXp

Enter Values: Rs2 + jXs2 Rs

Rs := 98.911 Xp :=
Rs2 + jXs2 jXs

jXs := 7.426

Rp :=

Cp :=

1012 ..F.106.|Xp| 2

p F

Results:

Rp = 99.469

Xp = 1.325 103

Cp = 0.03 pF

Figure 14. Mathcad worksheet for differential impedance calculations.

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Smith Chart Tune %Change Print Window Marker Frequency

Z01=50.00

Z02=50.00

3200
Marker 1 Marker 2 Marker 3 Marker 4 Differential Mkrs Rin[1-2] Mkr1: 123.94866563 Mkr2: 98.93090759 Mkr3: 110.75355323 Mkr4: 132.77609554 Xin[1-2] 10.04923289 7.42072891 5.0986736 13.35980339

2
LINC2 Schematic Capture - [Schematic] File Edit Parts Wire Set Analyze Auto About

33
S1 C:\LINC2\HHM158381.s2p Port2 R=50 X=0

Port1 R=50 X=0

Zin

Zout

Mkr 1 Mkr 2 Mkr 3 Mkr 4

MHz 3200.00 4000.00 4800.00 5600.00

Rin 64.46495596 130.83962167 99.96476151 55.42741455

Xin 69.79209466 20.96993702 58.888939311 53.26086541

Rout 84.57625088 138.60804675 110.32990177 74.9351249

Xout 71.42191948 2.62145034 66.52223877 86.09222497

Figure 15. LINC2 simulation of differential impedance.

kind of impedance in serial form. It can be converted easily to the parallel form with (21)(22). Simulation results show close to zero reactance (compare with Mathcad calculations). When reactance is not equal to zero, the reason may lie in calibration imperfections and measurement uncertainties. In this case, if higher accuracy is needed, measurement should be repeated with compensating opposite sign reactance connected across the differential baluns port (pins 2 and 3). Then, the newly obtained S-parameter file must be inserted into the RF simulator again and the corrected value of differential impedance will be gained. This technique is explained in [3].

with LINC2 RF design program. All of these measurements are based on a commercially available single-ended network analyzer and do not require differential equipment. Diverse calibration techniques are also explained with tabulated and graphical illustrations of the differences in obtained results. The discussed characterization routine helps to reduce design time and prototyping iterations for balanced networks and differential impedance matching.

Acknowledgment
The author wishes to thank Alex Yampolsky from Motorola for his inspiration and help with this articles preparation.

Conclusions
The simple technology described previously shows how to characterize the balun by measuring its single-ended Sparameters and converting them into mixed-mode S-parameters suitable to use with differential circuits. Practical how-to methods of measuring differential voltage, CMR, insertion loss, and differential impedance are discussed with examples of measured and converted S-parameter files, Excel spreadsheets, and differential impedance simulation

References
[1] J. Markus and N. Sclater, McGraw-Hill Electronics Dictionary. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994. [2] L. Konstroffer, Finding the reflection coefficient of a differential one-port device, RF Des., pp. 24, 28, Jan. 1999. [3] D. Henkes, Ordinary vector network analyzers get differential port measurement capability, High Frequency Electrons., vol. 2, no. 6, pp. 5460, Nov. 2003.

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