Technical data

5-31
Operating Concepts
Measurement Calibration
Figure 5-24. Reflection Coefficient
However, all of the incident signal does not always reach the unknown. Refer to Figure 5-25 on page 5-31.
Some of (I) may appear at the measurement system input due to leakage through the test set or through a
signal separation device. Also, some of (I) may be reflected by imperfect adapters between a signal
separation device and the measurement plane. The vector sum of the leakage and the miscellaneous
reflections is the effective directivity, E
DF
. Understandably, the measurement is distorted when the
directivity signal combines vectorally with the actual reflected signal from the unknown, S
11A
.
Figure 5-25. Effective Directivity E
DF
Since the measurement system test port is never exactly the characteristic impedance (50 ohms), some of
the reflected signal bounces off the test port, or other impedance transitions further down the line, and
back to the unknown, adding to the original incident signal (I). This effect causes the magnitude and phase
of the incident signal to vary as a function of S
11A
and frequency. Leveling the source to produce a constant
incident signal (I) reduces this error, but since the source cannot be exactly leveled at the test device
input, leveling cannot eliminate all power variations. This re-reflection effect and the resultant incident
power variation are caused by the source match error, E
SF
as shown in Figure 5-26.