936 IEEE MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS COMPONENTS LETTERS, VOL. 27, NO.

10, OCTOBER 2017

A Two-Line Time-Domain Gating Method for

Characterization of Test Fixture
With via Hole Discontinuity
Jaeyong Cho, Byung-Sung Kim, Member, IEEE, Jonghyuk Jeong, Junseong Kim, Kibeom Kim,
Karam Hwang, Hwiseob Lee, Seungil Jeung, and Seungyoung Ahn, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract— The time-domain gating method (TGM) is an accu-

rate and useful method to characterize the test fixtures used in
the measurement of high-speed connectors. However, its accuracy
can be degraded by the gating error when the test fixture contains
the impedance discontinuity near the fixture end facing the device
under test. To overcome this limitation, this letter proposes a two-
line TGM (2LTGM) for characterizing the test fixtures having the
discontinuities such as via holes. The proposed method does not
require any modification of the test fixtures with the help of the
proposed test structures and T-parameter extraction procedure.
The experimental results show that the proposed 2LTGM has an
8 dB lower mean square error than the conventional TGM for the Fig. 1. (a) Test fixture for measuring the high-speed connector, such as
test fixtures having via hole discontinuities at the end. We expect USB 3.1 type-C, having many I/O pins in a small form factor. (b) TDR
that the 2LTGM can improve the accuracy for characterizing the waveform of the test structure for characterizing the test fixture with the via
test fixtures with any discontinuities not limited to the via holes. hole discontinuity at the end.
Index Terms— Characterization, de-embedding, gating error,
test fixture, time-domain gating method (TGM), via holes.
I. I NTRODUCTION One of the most convenient ways to characterize the test
fixtures is the time-domain gating method (TGM) [1], [2].

T HE measurement for characterization of high-speed con-

nectors, such as the USB 3.1 type-C’s plug and recepta-
cle, has become more difficult due to its small and complex
structures. To connect I/O pins of the connectors to SubMinia-
ture version A connectors, or microprobes of the instrument
conveniently, an indirect measurement method using test fix-
tures has been broadly employed. However, the electrical char-
acteristics of the test fixtures affect the accuracy of measured
results of the connectors, especially in the high-frequency
range. Therefore, the characteristics of the test fixture should
be precisely de-embedded to identify the performance of the
high-speed connectors.
Manuscript received May 1, 2017; accepted August 9, 2017. Date of
publication September 12, 2017; date of current version October 5, 2017.
This work was supported in part by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and
Energy, and in part by the Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology
through the Industrial Strategic Technology Development Program 10052973.
(Corresponding author: Jaeyong Cho.)
J. Cho, K. Kim, K. Hwang, and S. Ahn are with the Korea Advanced
Institute of Science and Technology, Deajeon 305-701, South Korea
(e-mail: fable@kaist.ac.kr; smiledawn@kaist.ac.kr; hwang8@kaist.ac.kr;
sahn@kaist.ac.kr).
B.-S. Kim, J. Kim, and H. Lee are with the School of Information and
Communication, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 440-746, South Korea
(e-mail: bskimice@skku.edu; rfmdjskim@skku.edu; hwisbi@gmail.com).
J. Jeong and S. Jeung are with HUWIN, Seongnam 13558, South Korea
(e-mail: jjh@huwin.co.kr; sijeung@huwin.co.kr).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LMWC.2017.2746686
1531-1309 © 2017 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
It requires only a THRU structure with the help of the gating
process in the time-domain. Furthermore, two asymmetric test
fixtures can also be characterized simultaneously by the one
THRU structure [3]. However, if the impedance discontinuities
exist near the end of the test fixture facing the device under
test, an additional transmission line should be inserted in
the test fixture to minimize the gating error caused by the
prolonged time-domain response of the impedance discon-
tinuity [4]. In practical cases, the via hole, most common
and influential discontinuities in the fixture design, should be
placed at the end of the test fixture to properly interface the
instrument and the connector having many I/O pins in a small
form factor, as shown in Fig. 1. Therefore, in order to accu-
rately characterize, these test fixtures containing the via holes
at the end without the gating error, the conventional TGM
is needed to be modified without any additional transmission
lines in the test fixtures.
This letter proposes a two-line TGM (2LTGM) to charac-
terize the test fixtures having the via holes as discontinuities.
In this method, the test fixture does not need to embed any
additional transmission line section for preventing the gating
error, unlike the conventional TGM [4]. First, required lengths
of the additional transmission lines are defined to minimize
the gating error and the T-Parameters extraction procedure of
the test fixtures from the test structures is presented. Second,
to verify the accuracy of the proposed method, asymmetric
CHO et al.: TWO-LINE TIME-DOMAIN GATING METHOD FOR CHARACTERIZATION OF TEST FIXTURE WITH VIA HOLE DISCONTINUITY 937

Fig. 2. Proposed test structures for characterizing the test fixture with the
via hole discontinuities at the end.

test fixtures having via hole discontinuities and its test struc-
tures are implemented. Finally, characterized results using the
proposed 2LTGM and the conventional TGM are compared
with directly measured S-Parameters of the test fixtures.
Fig. 3. (a) Design of an asymmetric test fixture. (b) Implemented test struc-
II. T WO -L INE T IME -D OMAIN G ATING M ETHOD tures composed of the designed asymmetric test fixtures and two additional
transmission lines.
To characterize the fixture without the gating error of the
TGM, we propose two test structures as shown in Fig. 2.
The test structures are composed of two test fixtures with T-Parameters of the two test structures shown in Fig. 2 can
the via hole discontinuities and additional transmission lines be expressed as
(TL1 and TL2) of different lengths. The purpose of TL1 and [T1 ] = [TL ][TTL1 ][TR_m ] (6)
TL2 is to stabilize the time-domain response of the impedance
[T2 ] = [TL ][TTL2 ][TR_m ]. (7)
discontinuities, caused by the via holes at the end of the test
fixtures. The T-Parameters of two-inserted transmission line sections
The required lengths of lm1 and lm2 can be determined by [TTL1 ] and [TTL2 ] can be written as
analyzing the time-domain reflectometer (TDR) waveform of
[TTL1 ] = [TTLh ][TTLh ] (8)
the via hole. The TDR waveform of the via-hole is calculated
as shown [TTL2 ] = [TTL1 ][TTL1 ] = [TTLh ][TTLh ][TTLh ][TTLh ] (9)

γVia (t) = IFT{Via ( f )}(IFT: Inverse Fourier Transform) where [TTLh ] is the half of [TTL1 ]. [T1 ] and [T2 ] can
(1) be decomposed accurately into half of them using the
 t TGM [3] because the gating error can be minimized by the
VTDR_Via(t) = γVia (τ )dτ (2) [TTL1 ] and [TTL2 ]
0
1 + VTDR_Via(t) {[T1hL ], [T1hR ]} = TGM{[T1 ]} (10)
TDRVia (t) = Z 0 × (3)
1 − VTDR_Via(t) {[T2hL ], [T2hR ]} = TGM{[T2 ]}. (11)
where Via ( f ) is the reflection coefficients of the via hole [TTLh ] can be extracted from [T1hL ] and [T2hL ] as
and it can be calculated using characteristic impedance of the
additional transmission line Z 0 and impedance of the via hole. [T1hL ]−1 [T2hL ] = [[TL ][TTLh ]]−1 [TL ][TTLh ][TTLh ]
The required stabilizing time of the impedance fluctuation for = [TTLh ]−1 [TL ]−1 [TL ][TTLh ][TTLh ]
TDRVia (t) should be shorter than the half of the propagation = [TTLh ]. (12)
time t p of the TL1 and TL2 to prevent the gating error of the
TGM [4]. In order to calculate the minimally required lengths Conclusively, the T-Parameters of the test fixtures
of the TL1 and TL2, we define a condition of the required [TL ] and [TR ] are obtained as
reflection time td for TDRVia (t), expressed as
  [T1hL ][TTLh ]−1 = [TL ][TTLh ][TTLh ]−1 = [TL ] (13)
 TDRVia (t) − Z 0 
td = min(t) for   < Rth (4) [T1hR ][TTLh ] −1
= [TR ][TTLh ][TTLh ] −1
= [TR ]. (14)
Z  100
0
The S-Parameters of test fixtures can be easily calculated using
where td is the minimum time for satisfying (4), in which
the matrix conversion of the T-Parameters.
the impedance variation ratio of TDRVia (t) should be lower
than the threshold value Rth (%). Consequently, the minimally
required length of TL1 can be derived using td and the phase III. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS
velocity v p , expressed as To verify the accuracy of the 2LTGM, the test structures,
  composed of the asymmetric test fixtures and two additional
td
lm1 = v p · t p ≥ v p · × 2. (5) transmission lines (TL1 and TL2), have been implemented
2 on printed circuit board as shown in Fig. 3. The character-
The purpose of the TL2, twice longer than lm1 , is to remove istic impedance Z 0 is 76  with the linewidth of 0.1 mm.
the characteristics of the TL1 and TL2 from the test fixtures. Fig. 4(a) shows the structure of an implemented via hole and
938
Fig. 4. (a) Structure of the via hole and its equivalent circuit model. (b) TGM
results of the test structure for various Rth . (c) TDR of the implemented test
structure with or without TL1.
its equivalent circuit. To estimate the TDR waveform of the
via hole, the model parameters of the equivalent circuit are
extracted using a 3-D electromagnetic field solver (ANSYS
Q3D extractor). Therefore, the reflection coefficients Via ( f )
can be calculated as
( j 2π f Cvia //Z 0 +2π f L via )//2π f Cvia − Z 0
Via ( f ) =
( j 2π f Cvia //Z 0 +2π f L via )//2π f Cvia + Z 0
where the frequency range of Via ( f ) is from 50 MHz to
20 GHz with 50-MHz step. Fig. 4(b) shows the gating error
of the TGM estimated by the mean square error (MSE)
between the characterized and simulated S11 of the left test
fixture, having half of the TL1, up to 20 GHz for various
Rth . In overall, the smaller Rth can further reduce the MSEs,
although some Rth has a slight fluctuation of the MSE due
to a variation of the spectral leakage of the fast Fourier
transform for each half-gated response. Therefore, to guarantee
the minimized gating error of the TGM, we select Rth of 2%,
deriving lm1 of 8.91 mm. Accordingly, the test structures
are designed with the additional transmission lines having
lengths lm1 of 9 mm and lm2 of 18 mm. Fig. 4(c) shows the
TDR of the implemented test structure having the TL1, which
presents the continuous impedance response at the half.
The microprobe, GGB’s 40A-GSG-250-C and the vector
network analyzer, Anritsu’s 4647a, are used to measure
S-Parameters of the test structures and the test fixtures from
50 MHz to 20 GHz with a 50-MHz step. The characterized
results of the 2LTGM and the TGM are compared with the
measurement results of each test fixture, as shown in Fig. 5.
The accuracy of each model is verified by the MSE. The
compared results show that the 2LTGM has 8 dB lower MSE
than the TGM for all S-Parameters. It means that the 2LTGM
improves the accuracy for characterizing the test fixtures
with the via hole discontinuities but without insertion of any
additional transmission lines to the test fixtures.
IEEE MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS COMPONENTS LETTERS, VOL. 27, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2017
Fig. 5. Comparison of the measured test fixtures (green line) with the
(15)
characterized results of the TGM (red line) and the 2LTGM (blue dotted line).
(a) S21 of the left fixture. (b) S21 of the right fixture. (c) S11 of the left fixture.
(d) S11 of the right fixture. (e) S22 of the left fixture. (f) S11 of the right fixture.
IV. C ONCLUSION
This letter presented the 2LTGM for characterizing the
test fixtures having the via hole discontinuities at the end.
In this method, any modification of the test fixtures is not
required to overcome the limitation of the TGM, the gating
error, with the help of the proposed test structures and the
T-Parameter extraction procedure. The experimental results
showed the 2LTGM has an 8 dB higher accuracy in all MSEs
than the conventional TGM. Therefore, the 2LTGM facilitates
the highly accurate characterization of the test fixtures even
with the discontinuities, such as the via holes, and can be
applied to measure the high-speed connectors.
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