Measurement 45 (2012) 1105–1110

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Measurement
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/measurement

Accurate measurement of millimeter-wave attenuation from 75 GHz

to 110 GHz using a dual-channel heterodyne receiver
T.Y. Wu
National Metrology Centre, A*STAR, 1 Science Park Drive, Singapore 118221, Singapore

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A dual-channel millimeter-wave attenuation measurement system from 75 GHz to

Received 28 June 2011 110 GHz using a heterodyne receiver is described. The millimeter-wave attenuation is
Received in revised form 16 October 2011 derived from the voltage ratio at 5.02 kHz using an inductive voltage divider as a reference
Accepted 31 January 2012
standard. The measurement uncertainties are estimated to be 0.015–0.030 dB for attenua-
Available online 10 February 2012
tion ranging from 0 dB to 70 dB at 110 GHz. Measurement results of a waveguide rotary
vane attenuator with 0–70 dB attenuation steps at 110 GHz are presented.
Keywords:
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Millimeter-wave measurement
Heterodyne receiver
Low-noise measurement
Measurement uncertainty
Waveguide attenuator
Measurement standard

1. Introduction
Microwave attenuation measurement systems and
receivers with a high dynamic-range (DR) have been devel-
oped for accurate characterization of various devices and
systems [1–18]. Millimeter-wave technology is increasingly
being used in broadband communications, radar, security/
medical imaging, non-destructive testing and high-speed
electronics [19–26]. Correspondingly there is a growing de-
mand for accurate measurement at 75–110 GHz, which is
critical for component and system development. High DR
measurement at millimeter-wave frequencies is also re-
quired for imaging and radar systems [27,28]. A variable
waveguide attenuator calibrated by a dedicated attenuation
measurement system can serve as an attenuation reference
standard and provide traceability in linearity for millime-
ter-wave power meters, spectrum analyzers, network ana-
lyzers, radiometers and imaging systems [29]. Various
millimeter-wave attenuation measurement systems,
receivers and vector network analyzers (VNAs) have been
developed since the 1960s [30–41,12]. The systematic error
E-mail address: thomas_wu@nmc.a-star.edu.sg
and random error are less than ±0.3 dB and ±0.1 dB respec-
tively for measurement of 50 dB transmission loss using a
waveguide transmission measurement system at 75–
117 GHz [34]. A VNA can measure a 30 dB waveguide atten-
uator with an uncertainty of 0.33 dB at 110 GHz [39]. A
dual-channel audio frequency (AF) substitution receiver
has been developed for attenuation measurement in 75–
110 GHz at the National Metrology Centre, Singapore. The
millimeter-wave attenuation measurement is derived via
an inductive voltage divider (IVD) [42] which is used as a
voltage-ratio reference standard at 5.02 kHz. In this paper,
the design and measurement uncertainty analysis of this
new system are presented.
2. Measurement system design
A block diagram of the attenuation measurement system
in waveguide band WR10 (75–110 GHz) is shown in Fig. 1. A
microwave signal (12.5–18.33 GHz) drives a multiplier (6)
to generate a millimeter-wave signal in 75–110 GHz. The
signal level at test port 1 is about 5 dBm at 110 GHz. Two
subharmonic mixers are used to down-convert the millime-
ter-wave signal to a main and a reference intermediate

0263-2241/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.measurement.2012.01.030
1106 T.Y. Wu / Measurement 45 (2012) 1105–1110

RF Source DUT
(12.5 - 18.33 GHz ) Main Subharmonic
Isolator A Isolator B
Mixer
Level Set Matching Matching
X6
Attenuator Pad A Pad B
Port 1 Port 2 LO IF (3.2 GHz)

Ref Subharmonic LO X3
X3 Splitter
Mixer

IF (3.2 GHz) BP Filter

LO Source 1
BP Filter RF AF (5.02 kHz )
Main RF Mixer

Attenuator LO LP Filter

RF
Pre-Amp
LO
Ref RF Mixer

LO Source 2
Isolators Isolators (3.20000502 GHz) IVD
10 MHz
Reference

AF (5.02 kHz)
Reference (5.02 kHz) Lock-in
LP Filter Pre-Amp
Amp

Fig. 1. Block diagram of a dual-channel millimeter-wave attenuation measurement system in 75–110 GHz.

frequency (IF) signal at 3.2 GHz, respectively. The frequency
of LO source 1 is set to fLO which satisfies
(fRF  fLO)  6 = 3.2 GHz, where fRF is the frequency of the
RF source.
The main and reference IF signals go through band-pass
(BP) filters which are used to suppress the harmonic sig-
nals. The IF signals are further down-converted by two
RF mixers to AF signals at 5.02 kHz. The cut-off frequency
of the low-pass (LP) filter is 100 kHz. The reference AF sig-
nal provides a frequency reference to the lock-in amplifier
(LIA) to ensure accurate measurement of the main AF sig-
nal. An IVD is used as a traceable voltage ratio reference
standard with an accuracy of a few parts in 106. The volt-
age ratio of the millimeter-wave signal can be derived from
the IVD voltage ratio at 5.02 kHz.
The phase noise of the millimeter-wave source will be
translated to the IF signal, which will cause significant fluc-
tuation in LIA reading if the internal oscillator of the LIA is
used as the frequency reference signal. To stabilize the LIA
reading for accurate attenuation measurement, the cou-
pled millimeter-wave signal is down-converted to a AF sig-
nal, which is used as the external frequency reference of
the LIA. The LIA reading in our receiver is very stable and
the standard uncertainty in attenuation measurement
due to receiver fluctuation is about 0.001 dB. RF isolators
are placed between the main and reference RF mixers to
reduce the leakage signal introduced by the reference
channel.
A waveguide level-set attenuator (LSA) is used to con-
trol the signal level at the receiver input and avoid com-
pression error in the main subharmonic mixer and the RF
mixer. The isolators in the source side and receiver side
are used to reduce the reflection from the multiplier and
the main subharmonic mixer, respectively. Two matching
pads (waveguide attenuators) are used to reduce the mis-
match error in the attenuation measurement.
3. Millimeter-wave attenuation measurement
3.1. Direct measurement
The device under test (DUT) is usually a variable wave-
guide attenuator. When a DUT is set to its datum position
(0 dB), the IVD ratio is set to D1 and the LIA detects a signal
with magnitude of V1. After the DUT is set to a particular
attenuation range, the IVD ratio is adjusted to a ratio of
D2 so that the LIA detects a signal with magnitude of
V2 = V1. The incremental attenuation of the DUT can be de-
rived from
D2
A ¼ 20 log10 : ð1Þ
D1
Attenuation from 0.01 dB to 50 dB can be measured
using the direct measurement method.
3.2. Indirect measurement
For a DUT with attenuation higher than 50 dB, an indi-
rect measurement method is used. A variable 0–50 dB GBA
is inserted between the LSA and the Matching Pad A
(shown in Fig. 1), and the LSA is set to 0 dB. When the
DUT is at datum position, the GBA is set to 50 dB. The
IVD ratio is set to D01 and the signal magnitude measured
by the LIA is V 01 . When the DUT is set to an attenuation va-
lue (>50 dB), the GBA is set to 0 dB. Then the IVD ratio is
adjusted to D02 so that the signal magnitude measured by
the LIA is V 02 ¼ V 01 . The measured attenuation difference
between the DUT and the GBA becomes
D02
dA ¼ ADUT  AGB ¼ 20 log10 : ð2Þ
D01
 T.Y. Wu / Measurement 45 (2012) 1105–1110 1107

where ADUT and AGB is the incremental attenuation of the
DUT and the GBA, respectively. The attenuation of the
DUT is then obtained from
ADUT ¼ dA þ AGB ;
This is called indirect attenuation measurement. The
system can accurately measure the attenuation of a DUT
up to 70 dB.
4. Measurement uncertainty analysis
4.1. IVD error
A seven decade IVD is used as the voltage ratio refer-
ence standard. The maximum error in attenuation due to
the IVD ratio error is
 
ðD2 þ c2 ÞD1 ðD1 þ c1 ÞD2
eIVD ¼ max 20log10 ; 20 log10 ðdBÞ
ðD1  c1 ÞD2 ðD2  c2 ÞD1
where c1 and c2 are the IVD ratio maximum absolute error
when IVD is set to D1 and D2, respectively. The error is as-
sumed to have a rectangular distribution in [eIVD, eIVD].
The standard uncertainty due to the IVD error is estimated
by
eIVD
uIVD ¼ pffiffiffi
3
uIVD is estimated to be 0.0004 dB, 0.0008 dB and 0.0020 dB
for measurement of attenuation in 0–30 dB, 30–40 dB and
40–50 dB, respectively.
For a DUT beyond 50 dB, indirect measurement is made
by comparing the DUT to a 50 dB GBA. Thus uIVD for mea-
surement of attenuation in 50–70 dB is estimated to be
0.0004 dB.
The IVD is used between the pre-amplifier and the LIA.
Thus the pre-amplifier acts as the source of the IVD. The
LIA acts as the load of the IVD. The loading effect has been
analyzed. The error limit due to the IVD loading effect is
estimated to be 0.00004 dB, which is negligible in the
attenuation measurement uncertainty estimation.
4.2. Receiver nonlinearity
input has to be at least 30 dB below the LO level to achieve
the smallest nonlinearity error. For measurement of low
attenuation, a waveguide LSA is used to ensure the mixers
are operating in the linear region.
ð3Þ
The nonlinearity of the receiver is checked by repeated
measurement of a 0–10 dB incremental attenuation at
deceasing subharmonic mixer input levels. A precision ro-
tary-vane attenuator (RVA) can be used as a reference
waveguide attenuation standard [44,45]. A RVA with a
10 dB attenuator connected at each port is used as the
DUT to provide the 0–10 dB attenuation with very good
repeatability. When the DUT is set to 0 dB, the LSA is
adjusted to reduce the initial signal level at subharmonic
mixer input from 35 dBm to 95 dBm in 10 dB step.
The DUT is measured eight times at each signal level and
the measurements are listed in Table 1. The measurement
repeatability for each signal level is obtained by
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
sP
n
k¼1 ðxk  xÞ
2
uðxÞ ¼ ð6Þ
ð4Þ nðn  1Þ
where
Pn
x ¼ k¼1 xk
ð7Þ
n
and xk are the measurement data for each signal level and n
is the number of measurement (n = 8) [46].
ð5Þ The measurement values obtained at initial mixer input
level from 35 dBm to 75 dBm are averaged to obtain the
reference value (9.9658 dB), and their maximum deviation
from the reference value is eLIN = 0.0013 dB. The nonlinear-
ity error is assumed to have a rectangular distribution in
[eLIN, eLIN]. The standard uncertainty
pffiffiffi due to nonlinearity
error is estimated to be uLIN ¼ eLIN = 3 ¼ 0:0008 dB.
4.3. Mismatch uncertainty
Mismatch error is a dominant uncertainty factor in low
attenuation measurement. The standard mismatch uncer-
tainty for a variable attenuator can be estimated from [47],
h
uM ¼ 6:143  jCG j2 ðjs11b j2 þ js11e j2 Þ þ jCL j2 ðjs22b j2 þ js22e j2 Þ
i12
þjCG j2 jCL j2 ðjs21b j4 þ js21e j4 Þ ð8Þ

The nonlinearity of the subharmonic mixer, the RF mixer where CG and CL are the test port reflection coefficients,
and the pre-amplifier is an important uncertainty factor in s11b and s11e are the reflection coefficients of the DUT’s port
AF substitution attenuation measurement systems [43,5]. 1 before and after the DUT attenuation switching. Simi-
The signal level at the subharmonic mixer millimeter-wave larly, s22b and s22e are the reflection coefficients of the

Table 1
Measurement of the nonlinearity error of the receiver at 110 GHz.

Subharmonic mixer input DUT nominal Mean measured incremental Repeatability Reference Deviation from
level (dBm) attenuation step (dB) attenuation (dB) (dB) value (dB) reference value (dB)
35 to 45 0–10 9.9652 0.0009 9.9658 0.0006
45 to 55 0–10 9.9660 0.0009 9.9658 0.0002
55 to 65 0–10 9.9655 0.0016 9.9658 0.0003
65 to 75 0–10 9.9672 0.0015 9.9658 0.0013
75 to 85 0–10 9.9653 0.0011 9.9658 0.0005
85 to 95 0–10 9.9238 0.0050 9.9658 0.042
95 to 105 0–10 9.8828 0.0080 9.9658 0.083
1108 T.Y. Wu / Measurement 45 (2012) 1105–1110

DUT’s port 2, s21b and s21e are the DUT’s transmission coef-
ficients, respectively, before and after the DUT attenuation
switching. The mismatch uncertainty has a U-shaped
distribution.
Two 10 dB matching pads are used for a DUT below
50 dB and two 3 dB matching pads are used for DUT be-
yond 50 dB. Table 2 shows the reflection coefficient (mag-
nitude) of the test ports and a RVA at 110 GHz. The
standard uncertainty due to mismatch (uM) is estimated
to be 0.0076 dB for measurement of 0–20 dB attenuation
step and 0.010 dB for measurement of 50–70 dB attenua-
tion step, respectively, using the data given in Table 2.
The upper limit of uM for the RVA at 110 GHz is
0.0076 dB for the attenuation range below 50 dB and
0.010 dB for the attenuation range from 50 dB to 70 dB.
en
uN ¼ pffiffiffi ð10Þ
3
uN ranges from 0.001 dB to 0.0033 dB as DUT attenuation
increases from 10 dB to 70 dB, as listed in Table 3.
4.5. GBA calibration uncertainty
Calibration of an attenuator in the range from 50 dB to
70 dB is derived indirectly by comparing the the attenua-
tion of the device to that of a 50 dB GBA. The GBA has been
calibrated previously. Thus the GBA calibration uncertainty
(uGBA) should be included in the uncertainty budget com-
ponents for the indirect attenuation measurement.

4.4. Receiver fluctuation and noise 4.6. DUT repeatability

The detected signal by the LIA has small fluctuation in
amplitude during measurement. Such fluctuation will lead
to some uncertainty in the attenuation measurement since
the IVD ratio setting is determined by the LIA voltage
reading. For high attenuation measurement, receiver
fluctuation is mainly due to the thermal noise effect in
the mixers, pre-amplifier and the LIA.
Let D1 and D2 denotes the IVD ratio before and after the
DUT attenuation is changed, and d1 and d2 represents the
maximum absolute error in the IVD ratio D1 and D2 due to
the receiver fluctuation and noise, respectively. The maxi-
mum error in attenuation due to the fluctuation and noise is
 
ðD2 þ d2 ÞD1 ðD1 þ d1 ÞD2
en ¼ max 20 log10 ; 20 log10 ðdBÞ
ðD1  d1 ÞD2 ðD2  d2 ÞD1
ð9Þ
The error due to fluctuation and noise is assumed to
have a rectangular distribution in [en, en]. The standard
uncertainty due to receiver fluctuation and noise can be
estimated by
A RVA has an inherent repeatability error due to the dial
resettability which increases as the attenuation becomes
higher [44,45]. Two cascade-connected precision RVAs (re-
ferred to as RVA1 and RVA2) with 0–50 dB attenuation
steps in RVA1 and 0–20 dB attenuation steps in RVA2 are
used as a synthesized 0–70 dB variable attenuator in the
measurement experiment to estimate the DUT repeatabil-
ity. Eight measurements are made at each attenuation step.
The standard uncertainty due to DUT repeatability (uR) is
estimated to be 0.0008–0.0051 dB for the attenuation
range from 10 dB to 70 dB, as given in Table 3.
4.7. Combined and expanded uncertainty
The standard uncertainty components include the IVD
error, nonlinearity, mismatch uncertainty, receiver fluctua-
tion and noise, GBA calibration uncertainty and DUT
repeatability, which are listed in Table 3. These uncertainty
components are combined using root-sum-of-the-squares
(RSS) method to yield the standard system uncertainty

Table 2
Reflection coefficient (magnitude) of the test ports and a rotary vane attenuator at 110 GHz and the standard uncertainty due to mismatch error (uM) estimated
using these data.

Norminal attenuation step (dB) CG CL s11b s11e s22b s22e s21b s21e uM (dB)
0–20 0.022 0.025 0.0220 0.015 0.021 0.036 0.84 0.084 0.0076
50–70 0.032 0.036 0.016 0.017 0.020 0.037 0.0027 0.00028 0.010

Table 3
Uncertainty estimation for measurement of a waveguide rotary vane attenuator from 0 dB to 70 dB attenuation step at 110 GHz.

Uncertainty components Nominal Attenuation (dB)

0–30 40 50 60 70
IVD error 0.0004 0.0008 0.0020 0.0004 0.0004
Nonlinearity 0.0008 0.0008 0.0008 0.0008 0.0008
Mismatch 0.0076 0.0076 0.0076 0.010 0.010
Receiver fluctuation and noise 0.0010 0.0010 0.0033 0.0010 0.0033
Gauge block attenuator 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0092 0.0092
DUT Repeatability 0.0008 0.0026 0.0036 0.0051 0.0051
Combined Uncertainty 0.0077 0.0081 0.0092 0.015 0.015
Expanded Uncertainty (k = 2) 0.015 0.016 0.018 0.029 0.030
 T.Y. Wu / Measurement 45 (2012) 1105–1110 1109

Table 4
Measurement results of a synthesized waveguide rotary vane attenuator at 110 GHz.

RVA1 Nominal RVA2 nominal Nominal total incremental Mean measured total Repeatability Expanded
attenuation step (dB) attenuation step (dB) attenuation (dB) incremental attenuation (dB) (dB) uncertainty (dB)
0–10 0–0 10 10.003 0.0007 0.015
0–20 0–0 20 20.018 0.0007 0.015
0–30 0–0 30 30.041 0.0008 0.015
0–40 0–0 40 39.988 0.0026 0.016
0–50 0–0 50 50.036 0.0036 0.018
0–10 0–50 60 59.678 0.0051 0.029
0–20 0–50 70 69.694 0.0051 0.030

qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
uc ¼ u2IVD þ u2LIN þ u2M þ u2N þ u2GBA þ u2R
The expanded uncertainty [46] is obtained by
U ¼ kuc
where k is the coverage factor and k = 2. The combined
uncertainty u and the expanded uncertainty U are listed
in Table 3. The expanded uncertainties for measurement
of a waveguide RVA from 0 dB to 70 dB attenuation step
are estimated to be 0.015–0.030 dB.
5. Measurement results
The synthesized RVA (formed by cascade-connecting
RVA1 and RVA2) is measured at 10–70 dB attenuation step
at 110 GHz. Eight measurements are made at each attenua-
tion step and the results are given in Table 4. The nominal
attenuation values from 60 dB to 70 dB are measured indi-
rectly by comparing to a 50 dB GBA with a calibrated incre-
mental attenuation of 49.687 dB at 110 GHz. A calibrated
synthesized RVA can serve as a reference waveguide attenu-
ation standard in 75–110 GHz to provide traceability in lin-
earity for other millimeter-wave instruments and systems.
6. Conclusion
An IVD-based dual-channel millimeter-wave receiver in
75–110 GHz has been developed for precision attenuation
measurement. An inductive voltage divider is used as a
voltage ratio reference standard. The measurement uncer-
tainties are estimated to be 0.015–0.030 dB for a wave-
guide rotary vane attenuator with 0–70 dB attenuation
steps at 110 GHz. With an additional transmitting and
receiving antenna connected at the test port, it is possible
to use the system to make high dynamic-range transmis-
sion measurement in 75–110 GHz for non-destructive test-
ing, material measurement and millimeter-wave imaging.
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