Vector Network Analyzer Measurement of S Parameters in a Pulsed RF System

[@Starlite4321]

Thanks for the interesting video. I'm sorry for a super dumb question but, why WOULDN'T the pulsed measurement agree with the CW measurement of a band pass filter ? What's the point of making pulsed measurements in general in the first place ? Thanks.

[@CopperMountainTech]

Well, that's a good question! Why on earth would one make pulsed RF measurements of a filter? One wouldn't normally do such a thing except for perhaps measuring the resonance of a Q-Bit at low temperature. Pulsing the signal limits the total amount of power into the resonator and would improve coherence time. I used a filter because it was an easy DUT to demonstrate. In a more practical application, one would use pulsed RF measurement to characteize an RF power amplifier at much lower average power without the need for extensive cooling apparatus. This might be done for "on wafer" measurement of RF amplifiers where there is no cooling at all.