Multi-Frequency Approach to the Coaxial Multiline

Through-Reflect-Line Calibration
Arkadiusz Lewandowski, Wojciech Wiatr, Janusz Dobrowolski
Institute of Electronic Systems
Warsaw University of Technology
Nowowiejska 15/19, 00-665 Warsaw, Poland
A.Lewandowski@ise.pw.edu.pl, W.Wiatr@ise.pw.edu.pl, J.Dobrowolski@ise.pw.edu.pl

AbstractWe present an improved coaxial multiline throughreflect-line calibration method which allows to correct for errors
in the description of calibration standards. Our approach is
based on the multi-frequency formulation of the vector-networkanalyzer calibration problem which accounts for the physical
relationships between calibration standard S-parameters at different frequencies. We illustrate our approach with experimental
results for the coaxial multiline through-reflect-line calibration
with type-N airlines. We show that our calibration method significantly improves the measurement accuracy as compared with
the classical multiline through-reflect-line calibration method.
Index Termsvector network analyzer (VNA), through-reflectline (TRL) calibration, coaxial multiline TRL calibration, multifrequency VNA calibration, air-dielectric transmission line, systematic errors

I. I NTRODUCTION
The multiline through-reflect-line (TRL) method [1] is
commonly considered as the most accurate technique for the
vector-network-analyzer (VNA) calibration. This method uses
a set of transmission lines with different lengths and the same
but otherwise unknown propagation constant, a reflect standard
which is assumed to be identical on both VNA ports but
otherwise unknown, and a thru connection. All of the unknown
parameters of the calibration standards, that is, the propagation
constant of the lines and the reflection coefficient of the reflect
standard are then determined along with the VNA calibration
coefficients [1].
The superior accuracy of this technique stems from two
facts: the use of redundant calibration standards which reduces
the uncertainty due to the VNA instrumentation errors (i.e.,
connector nonrepeatability, cable instability, test-set drift, and
receiver noise and nonlinearities), and the foundation of the
calibration standard definitions solely on the dimensional
measurements (line lengths) and some qualitative requirements
(uniformity of the lines, identical cross-sections of the lines
and identical reflection coefficients of the reflects).
As the uncertainty due the VNA instrumentation errors can
be reduced by increasing the number of calibration standards,
the ultimate accuracy limitation in the multiline TRL calibration results from errors in the description of calibration
standards. These errors are caused by the inaccuracy in the
This work was supported by the grant N N505 360836 of the Polish
Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

determination of calibration standard parameters (i.e., errors

in line lengths) and the violation of the assumptions made as
to the calibration standard (i.e., differences in the characteristic
impedance and propagation constant of the lines, differences in
the reflection coefficients of the reflects, and nonrepeatability
of the connector interface).
Efforts to reduce the uncertainty due to the errors in the
description of calibration standards focus primarily on precise
dimensional characterization of the transmission lines and
minimization of the possible center-conductor-gap variation
through a tight control of the test-port pin-depth. Much research has also been done on the modeling of the electrical
properties of the center-conductor gap [2][5].
In this work, we present an improved coaxial multiline
TRL calibration method [1] which allows to correct for errors
in the definitions and modeling of calibration standards. To
this end, we construct electrical models which characterize
the relationship between these errors and their frequencydependent impact on calibration-standard S-parameters. These
models are then used as an additional piece of information in
the VNA calibration, which is implemented with the multifrequency algorithm of [6], [7].
Our method can be thought of as an extension of the selfcalibration approach [8], employed, for example, in the classical TRL method [9], [10] or in the unknown thru method
[11]. The principle of self-calibration is to use the physical
relationships between calibration-standard S-parameters at one
frequency as an additional piece of information in the VNA
calibration. In our approach, we extend this principle and
exploit also the physical relationships between calibration standard S-parameters at different frequencies. These relationships
have already been partially used in the sliding-load calibration
of [12] and in the offset-short calibration of [13], and our work
generalizes these results.
II. C OAXIAL T RANSMISSION -L INE M ODEL
A nominal description of a set of N transmission lines in
the classical multiline TRL calibration is given by [1]


0
eln
Sn =
,
(1)
eln
0

VNA

Port A

Fig. 1.
line.

Air line

VNA

Port B

impedance and losses (expressed in terms of an equivalent

line-length increase) due to the errors in the diameters and
conductivity. We further define the vectors w11 , w22 , w12 ,
w21 as fixed frequency-dependent functions, characterizing the
relationship between the parameters (3) and S-parameters of
the line. Detailed form of these functions, as well as definitions
of the parameters 0n and ln , are given elsewhere [7].
The matrix S0n describes the nominal S-parameters of the
airline, that is, the S-parameters one obtains for n = 0. This
matrix is given by

Errors in the description of a real air-dielectric coaxial transmission

where n = 1, . . . , N is the index of the line, ln is the nominal

length of the n-th line, and is the complex propagation
constant. It is assumed that the lines are uniform, and have
the same propagation constant and characteristic impedance.
The propagation constant is then determined during the
calibration. From that, with the use of methods described in
[14], one can determine the characteristic impedance Z0 of the
line, and thus reset the reference impedance of the calibration
to an arbitrary value, typically 50 .
As discussed earlier on, a real coaxial airline violates the
assumptions underlying the nominal description (1). This is
illustrated in Fig. 1. First of all, owing to the construction
of the pin-socket connector interface, the center conductor
at either end of the airline has a gap. Due to the lack
of beads supporting the center conductor, the size of these
gaps is different each time the airline is connected. Thus
their impact cannot be calibrated out and contributes to the
measurement error. We characterize the nonrepeatability of the
center conductor gaps with the parameter ln which describes
the displacement of the inner and outer conductor symmetry
axes.
Furthermore, the lengths of the inner and outer conductor
are measured with an error. Therefore the actual lengths of
both conductor differ from the nominal values, li0n and lo0n ,
by lin and lon , respectively. Also, due to the manufacturing
tolerances, the inner and outer conductor diameters differ
from the nominal values for a given connector size, d0 and
D0 , respectively, by dn and Dn . Finally, due to limited
repeatability of the metal plating process, the conductivity of
each line differs from the nominal (and unknown) value 0 by
n .
Now, assuming that all of the above errors are small and that
the line has small losses, we can approximate its S-parameters
as


T
T
n
w11
n
eli0n w12
Sn = S0n +
, (2)
T
T
eli0n w21
n
w22
n
for n = 1, . . . , N , with the vector of airline parameters given
by
T
n = [0n , ln , ln , lin , lon ] ,
(3)
where the superscript T denotes the transpose, and parameters
0n and ln characterize the change of the line characteristic


S0n =

j 12 xg0 1 + e2li0n
eli0n (1 jxg0 )

eli0n (1 jxg0 )

j 21 xg0 1 + e2li0n


,

(4)
where xg0 = L0g g0 is the normalized reactance of the center
conductor gap, L0g is the normalized inductance per-unit-length
of the center conductor gap which can be determined based
on the model [2] and specifications [15], and g0n = (lo0n
li0n )/2 is the nominal width of the center conductor gap. We
split either center conductor gap into the part that belongs to
the calibration standard and to the VNA. The part of the gap
that belongs to the VNA is lumped into the VNA calibration
coefficients. Hence, the calibration reference plane coincides
with the outer conductor joint plane1 .
Summarizing, for a set of N transmission lines we have two
sets of unknown parameters: a set {k }K
k=1 of propagation
constant values at the measurement frequencies {fk }K
k=1 ,
where K is the number of frequencies, and a set of vectors
{n }N
n=1 , comprising the frequency-independent errors in line
parameters. All of these unknown parameters are determined
along with VNA calibration coefficients.
III. C ALIBRATION A LGORITHM
A detailed description of the calibration algorithm is given
elsewhere [7]. Here we shall only discuss its main points.
As the error mechanisms captured in the vectors {n }N
n=1
contribute simultaneously to the measurement errors at all
frequencies, the VNA calibration problem needs to be solved
jointly at all measurement frequencies. To this end, we formulate the calibration algorithm as a maximum-likelihood
estimation problem in which we consider the joint probability
distribution function of the measurement error defined at
all frequencies under consideration. Practical implementation
of such a multi-frequency maximum-likelihood estimation
problem leads to some difficulties due to its large scale, and
nonlinear and ill-posed character [7]. The large scale of this
optimization task results from the fact the VNA calibration
coefficients are sought simultaneously at all measurement
frequencies. Consequently, its direct solution is very time consuming. Hence, we use a robust iterative numerical approach
which exploits the relationships between the sought parameters
in order to reduce the dimensionality of the optimization task.
Our approach is based on a modified version of the classical
1 For the type-N coaxial connector, the outer conductor and inner conductor
joint planes do not coincide [15]. In this case we set the reference plane at
the inner conductor joint plane.

Line
L1
L2
L3
L4
L5
L6

[mm]

Measurement
uncertainty
[mm]

29.97
49.94
59.93
74.93
99.88
149.83

0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1

Length

Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm [16], in which we account for

the sparse structure of the Jacobians of the goal function.
The ill-posed character of the error-mechanism-based VNA
calibration, manifesting itself with difficulties in obtaining
a unique solution, results from the fact that some of the
estimated parameters (i.e., the VNA calibration coefficients,
propagation constants {k }K
k=1 , and parameters contained in
the vectors {n }N
)
are
related to each other. We anan=1
lyze the origins of those relationships and devise a general
methodology for assuring the identifiability of the solution.
This methodology relies on restricting the space of possible
solutions with a set of linear equality constraints, based
on some intuitive statistical properties of the physical error
mechanisms [6], [7].
IV. E XPERIMENTS
We illustrate our approach with experimental results for
the coaxial multiline through-reflect-line calibration in the
type-N coaxial standard. We used six high-grade type-N
airlines from the Maury Microwave 2553K calibration kit,
with lengths given in Tab. I, a pair of short circuits from
the Maury Microwave 8850C calibration kit, and a thru
connection realized as a direct connection of the VNA ports.
The measurements were performed with the Agilent E8363B
VNA in the frequency range from 0.1-18 GHz, and with the
frequency spacing of 50 MHz. The VNA ports were equipped
with two flexible 3.5 mm cables with 3.5 mm-to-type-N male
and female adapters at their ends.
In Fig. 2, we compare the attenuation constant and phase
constant of the lines, as obtained with the use of the classical
multiline TRL calibration (solid gray), and with the use of
our method (solid black). We see that correcting for the errors
in line definitions leads to a slightly different estimate of
both parameters as compared with the classical multiline TRL
calibration. The relative change in the phase constant is larger
then for the attenuation constants, which indicates that the
errors of a reactive nature (i.e., length and diameter errors,
nonreproducibility of the center conductor gaps) dominate.
In Fig. 3, we show the residual standard deviation (see
[17]) for the classical multiline TRL method [1] and for our
new method. The residual standard deviation is a measure of
the misfit between the raw measurements of the calibration
standards and the prediction of those measurements calculated
from the description of the calibration standards and the VNA

Residual standard deviation

TABLE I
A IRLINE LENGTHS ALONG WITH THE MEASUREMENT UNCERTAINTIES

0.04
MultiCAL
new method

0.03
0.02
0.01
0
0

6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Frequency [GHz]

Fig. 3. Residual standard deviation as obtained from the classical multiline

TRL (solid gray) [1], and from the new method (solid black).

model obtained in the calibration. Thus, this metric quantifies

the overall quality of the calibration. We see in Fig. 3 that our
method results in a reduction of this metric by up to 10 times.
In order to determine how the reduction of the residual
standard deviations improves the measurement accuracy, we
performed an approximate uncertainty evaluation based on
the residual analysis [17]. The principle of this analysis is
to transform the misift of the model, characterized by the
residual standard deviation, into equivalent uncertainties of
the VNA calibration coefficients. From these uncertainties,
one can then determine the corresponding uncertainties in
corrected measurements. In Fig. 4, we show results of this
analysis for the corrected reflection-coefficient magnitude of a
matched termination and an offset open. For both devices, the
measurements obtained from the two calibration methods are
close to each other. However, as expected from the reduction of
the residual standard deviation, the uncertainties of our method
are by up to 10 times smaller than for the classical multiline
TRL method.
V. C ONCLUSIONS
We presented an improved coaxial multiline TRL calibration method which corrects for the systematic errors in the
definitions and models of the airlines. Our method employs
the multi-frequency approach to the VNA calibration which,
unlike the classical VNA calibration methods, allows to account for the relationships between calibration standard Sparameters at different frequencies. Experimental results for
the multiline TRL calibration with coaxial type-N airlines
clearly demonstrate that exploiting these relationships significantly improves the calibration accuracy, as compared with
the classical multiline TRL method [1].
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors thank Grzegorz Kedzierski and Karol Korszen
of the National Institute of Telecommunications, Warsaw,
Poland, for performing the measurements.
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MultiCAL
new method

Normalized phase constant

Arrenuation constant

0.15

0.10

0.05

6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Frequency [GHz]

1.005

MultiCAL
new method

1.004
1.003
1.002
1.001
1.000
0

(a)

6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Frequency [GHz]

(b)

Fig. 2. Propagation constant of the type-N coaxial airlines, as obtained with the classical multiline TRL method (solid gray) and with our method (solid
black): (a) attenuation constant, (b) phase constant normalized to the free-space phase constant.

-10

MultiCAL
new method
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MultiCAL
new method
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Frequency [GHz]

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(a)

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Frequency [GHz]

(b)

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