Measurement of the inductance of an HOLLOW rivet with the HP 8753B

Objective: To measure the inductance of a Hollow rivet with the HP 8753B to use the value in the grounding process of a
power transistor in an amplifier.

Dimension of the hollow rivet diameter: 1,5mm length: 2 mm: 267,43 pH

Pucel and Goldfarb

0  
via 
LEquation 3.0
2 
 2h  r 2  2h 2
 h  ln 
 r
 3
 2

  r  r 2  h2 
 (picohenries)

   
Pucel and Goldfarb
Equation 3.0

Again the theory is interesting but the how can I measure this?

The normal way to measure a so small inductance is to use a VNA

Let’s see what is happening

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The VNA , HP 8753B

The calibration kit from Dr Kirkby (measured and define by )

Those calibers have been controlled and measured by Dr. Kirkby and used as User Kit in the VNA HP 8753B.

Now let’s Go.

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First we do a S11 calibration with the user kit. First step USER KIT downloaded from VNA Calkit Manager.

Calibration S11 ONE PORT OPEN connected and measured

SHORT caliber connected and measured LOAD caliber connected and set

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The calibration is verified So is the LOAD

The same male SMA used for the DUT is shorted at the reference plane and is placed at PORT1 MALE

We place the short SMA with a Cu plate at the reference plane at PORT, 1,

Before measuring the DUT do an extension of the port 1 where the measure take place to obtain a dot at the calibration point.

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 The DUT is connected to port 1 The value is displayed

The right picture show the arc created by the inductance of the 2 hollow rivets on the PORT 1 ,the value displayed is 264
pH the actual value would normaly be 264-10pH = 254 pH (residual value left in the circuit with the port extension
realized)

To avoid all the steps to do an extension port , I have done the same measurement with the APC connector as I do have
an APC7 calibration kit , the measured value was( for one HOLLOW rivet) 500 pH so if I place two inductances in parallel
The value must be at best halved(not completely true).

I asked Dr Dunsmore at Keysight here it is his answer:

“I designed the test methods to determine the values (and parasitic values) for the SMT library used in ADS, so I have a lot
of experience with this.

First, two rivets to ground won't be 1/2 the inductance of 1 rivet because of mutual inductance between the two. Putting
them on opposite sides help but there will still be a mutual inductance.

Second: the fringing from an SMA connector is likely to be about 70 fF or so, so you have to back out that from the
measurement. You are really measuring the parallel circuit of the fringing cap of the SMA and the inductance. It's 1 AM in
china and too late for me to spin up an ADS simulation, but you get the picture.

Lastly, when you use the rivet, the fringing fields will be entirely different. If you are using it to pass signals from one side
of a board to another, its effective inductance will depend very strongly on nearby grounds. In fact, you could consider that
it hasn't any inductance; rather, consider it as a transmission line of high impedance. That's the one way to account for the
ground effects. The other is to try to model a shunt capacitance.

So, if you can post a drawing of how you intend to use the rivet, I can give a better idea of what to model it as.

I suspected that was how you were using it. My first design for HP was a common base buffer amplifier where the base
inductance was THE critical factor in the operation (used in the 8753A).
To measure the inductance in an "as used" case, make a thru transmission line (no transistor) and then ground the
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transmission line center through the rivet. That is, make a transmission line with a shunt ground inductor. Measure S21
and or S11. You can then model the equivalent inductance as L in parallel with 50 ohms. Of course at low freq. there is no
transmission.
I think “

So after that information I have done the test with a special test Jig with 4 rivets.

Here are the results:

The VNA was calibrated with a full 2 ports calibration. And first the S21 parameter is measured.

The result is -41 dB @ 89 °

The same measurement with the polar display 0.00867 @89 °

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The second parameter measured is S11, this is the display without port extension.

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The same measure with port extension i.e. the actual distance from the launch connector to the 4 rivets connected to the
ground

The value is 127 pH measured for 4 rivets to the ground

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.

.making a simulation with my low cost ADS i.e. Puff I obtain the same value to be compared with ADS simulation from Dr
Joel Dunsmore.

Joel dunsmore answer:

“Simulation shows that to be about 14.4 pH equivalent inductance. probably a good estimate for your transitor
grounding. So a quick ADS Might be interesting to see the effect of cutting one or both top side grounds, and seeing also
what a single rivet to ground through the center conductor to backplane looks like. I'm guessing the topside ground is
doing you a lot of good.”

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Sunday, December 28, 2014

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