Reliability verification in a measurement system of integrated varactors for RF applications

Abstract

In this paper the reliability verification in a measurement system of passive components is presented, the passive components measured are integrated varactors. The measurement system used for the characterization of the varactors consists of the HP8719ES Vector Network Analyzer. To calibrate the measurement system, the short-open-load-through (SOLT) was used. The varactors have been designed with measurement structures in order to use the Cascade ACP40 GSG microprobes. The de-embedding process is used to move the measurement reference plane from the calibration point (probe tips) to the DUT (Device Under Test). For this work, it was used the Four Step De -embedding method but after making the necessary measurements the method has been simplified by not taking into account the coupling between signals due to tits very low value. Also, the characterization of the connections leads has not been done using the test structures but using the design rules. Due to the measurement system introduces uncertainty in the varactor measure, is necessary design some tests in order to calculate the error. In this paper these tests are defined.