METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TESTING CONVERSION LOSSES OF TERAHERTZ MIXERS CAPABLE OF ELIMINATING INFLUENCE OF RADIO FREQUENCY SOURCES

Abstract

A method and system for testing the conversion losses of terahertz mixers capable of eliminating the influence of radio frequency sources includes grouping a mixer to be tested and at least two reference mixers in pairs; in each group, inputting a signal of a preset frequency and a preset power at an intermediate frequency port of a first mixer, and after up-conversion, outputting same to a second mixer to be down-converted, so as to obtain an output power with the frequency same as the preset frequency, and obtain the relationship between a first output power and a first preset power and the losses of two mixers; according to the relationship between the loss of the mixer in each group and the power, obtaining the loss of the mixer to be tested.

Claims

1. A method for testing the conversion losses of terahertz mixers capable of eliminating the influence of radio frequency sources, comprising: grouping a mixer to be tested and at least two reference mixers in pairs; in each group, inputting a signal of a preset frequency and a preset power at an intermediate frequency port of a first mixer, and after up-conversion, outputting same to a second mixer to be down-converted, so as to obtain an output power with the frequency same as the preset frequency, and obtain the relationship between a first output power and a first preset power and the losses of two mixers; according to the relationship between the loss of the mixer in each group and the power, obtaining the loss of the mixer to be tested.

2. The method for testing the conversion losses of terahertz mixers capable of eliminating the influence of radio frequency sources according to claim 1, wherein in each group, the sum of the losses of two mixers is equal to a difference value between the preset power and an output power.

3. The method for testing the conversion losses of terahertz mixers capable of eliminating the influence of radio frequency sources according to claim 1, wherein according to the relationship between the loss of the mixer in each group and the power, the losses of the mixer to be tested and the reference mixer are obtained.

4. The method for testing the conversion losses of terahertz mixers capable of eliminating the influence of radio frequency sources according to claim 3, wherein the reference mixer is a mixer to be tested with an unknown loss.

5. The method for testing the conversion losses of terahertz mixers capable of eliminating the influence of radio frequency sources according to claim 1, wherein the mixer to be tested, a first reference mixer and a second reference mixer are provided, and the mixer to be tested, the first reference mixer and the second reference mixer are grouped in pairs to obtain three groups.

6. The method for testing the conversion losses of terahertz mixers capable of eliminating the influence of radio frequency sources according to claim 1, wherein the preset frequency is 100 MHz.

7. The method for testing the conversion losses of terahertz mixers capable of eliminating the influence of radio frequency sources according to claim 1, wherein a signal up-converted is fed in through an input port of a directional coupler and fed to a radio frequency port of the second mixer through a coupling port.

8. The method for testing the conversion losses of terahertz mixers capable of eliminating the influence of radio frequency sources according to claim 1, wherein in the same group, the numbers of frequency doubling times in local oscillation links of two mixers are the same; or, in the same group, the numbers of frequency doubling times in local oscillation links of two mixers are different; or, in the same group, the orders of harmonics of two mixers are the same; or, in the same group, the orders of harmonics of two mixers are different; or, the signal of the preset frequency and the preset power is determined according to the intermediate frequency range of the mixer and the compression point of the mixer.

9. The method for testing the conversion losses of terahertz mixers capable of eliminating the influence of radio frequency sources according to claim 1, wherein in each group, a first microwave signal source provides a signal of a preset frequency and a preset power, and the signal is input through an intermediate frequency port of the first mixer and up-mixed with a first local oscillation signal generated by a second microwave signal source and a first local oscillation link to generate a mixed signal of a preset frequency; the mixed signal is fed in through an input port of a directional coupler, fed to a radio frequency port of the second mixer through a coupling port, and down-mixed with a second local oscillation signal generated by a third microwave signal source and a second local oscillation link to obtain the output power of the signal of the preset frequency after being down-mixed by the second mixer.

10. A system for testing conversion losses of terahertz mixers capable of eliminating the influence of radio frequency sources, comprising a mixer to be tested and at least two reference mixers; all the mixers being grouped in pairs, and in each group, a signal of a preset frequency and a preset power being input at an intermediate frequency port of a first mixer; a signal up-converted through the first mixer being output to a radio frequency port of a second mixer through a directional coupler, after the second mixer performs down-conversion, an output power with the frequency same as the preset frequency being obtained so as to obtain the relationship between a first output power and a first preset power and the losses of two mixers; according to the relationship between the loss of the mixer in each group and the power, the loss of the mixer to be tested being obtained.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0030] The accompanying drawings constituting a part of the present disclosure are used to provide further understanding of the present disclosure. Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure and descriptions thereof are used to explain the present disclosure, and do not constitute an improper limitation to the present disclosure.

[0031] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a test method provided in the background for exciting a terahertz mixer using a terahertz signal source.

[0032] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a Y-factor test method provided in the background.

[0033] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram for testing the conversion losses of terahertz mixers in the first group provided in Embodiment 1 of the present disclosure.

[0034] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram for testing the conversion losses of terahertz mixers in the second group provided in Embodiment 1 of the present disclosure.

[0035] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram for testing the conversion losses of terahertz mixers in the third group provided in Embodiment 1 of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0036] The present disclosure is further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples.

[0037] It should be noted that the following detailed descriptions are all exemplary and are intended to provide a further description of the present disclosure. Unless otherwise specified, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by a person of ordinary skill in the technical field to which the present disclosure belongs.

[0038] It should be noted that terms used herein are only for describing specific implementations and are not intended to limit exemplary implementations according to the present disclosure. As used herein, the singular form is intended to include the plural form, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. In addition, it should further be understood that terms “include” and/or “comprise” used in this specification indicate that there are features, steps, operations, devices, components, and/or combinations thereof.

[0039] The embodiments in the present disclosure and features in the examples may be mutually combined in case that no conflict occurs.

Embodiment 1

[0040] Embodiment 1 of the present disclosure provides a method for testing the conversion losses of terahertz mixers capable of eliminating the influence of radio frequency sources, a terahertz mixer to be tested being represented as A and the other two reference mixers (the reference mixers can also be two mixers to be tested) being represented as B and C, respectively. The three terahertz mixers A, B and C are combined in pairs and divided into the first group of A and B, the second group of C and B, and the third group of A and C.

[0041] For the two terahertz mixers A and B in the first group, a signal of a frequency of 100 MHz and a power of P.sub.IF_IN_A is input at the intermediate frequency port of the mixer A (determined based on the intermediate frequency range of the mixer and a compression point of the mixer), the signal is up-converted through the mixer A, while the mixer B receives the signal of 100 MHz through down-conversion, the received power is P.sub.IF_OUT_B, the conversion losses of the mixer A and the mixer B are noted as CL.sub._A and CL.sub._B, CL.sub._A+CL.sub._B=P.sub.IF_IN_A−P.sub.IF_OUT_B; CL.sub._C+CL.sub._B=P.sub.IF_OUT_B and CL.sub._A+CL.sub._C=P.sub.IF_IN_A−P.sub.IF_OUT_C can be obtained by using the same method, and the conversion losses CL.sub._A, CL.sub._B and CL.sub._C of the mixers A, B and C can be accurately obtained by solving the above-mentioned three equations.

[0042] The specific steps for each group to perform testing are as follows:

[0043] as shown in FIG. 3, the two terahertz mixers A 330 and B 335 are in the first group, a microwave signal source 310 provides a signal of a frequency of 100 MHz and a power of P.sub.IF_IN_AB (determined based on the intermediate frequency range of the mixer A 330 and the compression point of the mixer), the signal is input through an intermediate frequency port of the mixer A 330, and up-mixed with a local oscillation signal LO.sub._A generated by the microwave signal source 305 and a local oscillation link 325 to generate an n*LO.sub._A+100 MHz signal (n is the order of harmonics of the mixer A 330 and the fundamental wave mixing n is 1).

[0044] The signal is fed in through an input port of a directional coupler 350, fed to a radio frequency port of the mixer B 335 through a coupling port and down-mixed with a local oscillation signal LO.sub._B generated by a microwave signal source 315 and a local oscillation link 340, n*LO.sub._A+100 MHz−m*LO.sub._B=100 MHz (m is the order of harmonics of the mixer B 335 and the fundamental wave mixing m is 1). The output power of the signal of 100 MHz after being down-mixed by the mixer B 335 is P.sub.IF_OUT_AB.

[0045] The orders of harmonics of the mixer A 330 and the mixer B 335 can be the same or different, and the number of frequency doubling times N×M in the local oscillation link of the mixer A 330 can be the same as or different from Q×P in the mixer B 335. The conversion losses of the mixer A and the mixer B are noted as CL.sub._A and CL.sub._B:

CL.sub._A+CL.sub._B=P.sub.IF_IN_AB   (7)

[0046] As shown in FIG. 4, the two terahertz mixers C 430 and B 335 are in the second group, a microwave signal source 310 provides a signal of a frequency of 100 MHz and a power of P.sub.IF_IN_CB (determined based on the intermediate frequency range of the mixer C 430 and the compression point of the mixer), the signal is input through an intermediate frequency port of the mixer C 430, and up-mixed with a local oscillation signal LO.sub._C generated by a microwave signal source 305 and a local oscillation link 425 to generate an s*LO.sub._A+100 MHz signal (s is the order of harmonics of the mixer C 430 and the fundamental wave mixing s is 1).

[0047] The signal is fed in through an input port of a directional coupler 350, fed to a radio frequency port of the mixer B 335 through a coupling port and down-mixed with a local oscillation signal LO.sub._B generated by a microwave signal source 315 and a local oscillation link 340, s*LO.sub._A+100 MHz−m*LO.sub._B=100 MHz (m is the order of harmonics of the mixer B 335 and the fundamental wave mixing m is 1), and the output power of the signal of 100 MHz after being down-mixed by the mixer B 335 is P.sub.IF_OUT_B.

[0048] The orders of harmonics of the mixer C 430 and the mixer B 335 can be the same or different, the number of frequency doubling times R×S in the local oscillation link of the mixer C 430 can be the same as or different from Q×P in the mixer B 335, and the conversion losses of the mixer C and the mixer B are noted as CL.sub._C and CL.sub._B:

CL.sub._C+CL.sub._B=P.sub.IF_IN_CB−P.sub.IF_OUT_CB   (8)

[0049] The two terahertz mixers A 330 and C 430 are in the third group, a microwave signal source 310 provides a signal of a frequency of 100 MHz and a power of P.sub.IF_IN_AC (determined based on the intermediate frequency range of the mixer A 330 and the compression point of the mixer), the signal is input through an intermediate frequency port of the mixer A 330, and up-mixed with a local oscillation signal LO.sub._A generated by a microwave signal source 305 and a local oscillation link 325 to generate an n*LO.sub._A+100 MHz signal (n is the order of harmonics of the mixer A 330 and the fundamental wave mixing n is 1).

[0050] The signal is fed in through an input port of a directional coupler 350, fed to a radio frequency port of the mixer C 430 through a coupling port and down-mixed with a local oscillation signal LO.sub._C generated by a microwave signal source 315 and a local oscillation link 425, n*LO.sub._A+100 MHz−s*LO.sub._C=100 MHz (s is the order of harmonics of the mixer C 430 and the fundamental wave mixing s is 1), and the output power of the signal of 100 MHz after being down-mixed by the mixer C 430 is P.sub.IF_OUT_AC.

[0051] As shown in FIG. 5, the orders of harmonics of the mixer A 330 and the mixer C 430 can be the same or different, and the number of frequency doubling times R×S in the local oscillation link of the mixer C 430 can be the same as or different from a mixing and frequency doubling factor N×M in the mixer A 330.

[0052] The conversion losses of the mixer A and the mixer C are noted as CL.sub._A and CL.sub._C.

CL.sub._A+CL.sub._C=P.sub.IF_IN_AC−P.sub.IF_OUT_AC   (9)

[0053] The respective losses of the mixer A, the mixer B and the mixer C can be obtained by combining the equations (7), (8) and (9).

[0054] In this embodiment, the frequency of the signal received by each mixer is not limited to 100 MHz, but can also be other values such as 10 MHz or 200 MHz, which can be designed by a person skilled in the art according to the specific operating conditions and will not be repeated here.

[0055] It will be appreciated that in some other implementations, the directional coupler can also be replaced by an attenuator or isolator, which can be selected by a person skilled in the art according to the specific operating conditions and will not be repeated here.

Embodiment 2

[0056] Embodiment 2 of the present disclosure provides a system for testing the conversion losses of terahertz mixers capable of eliminating the influence of radio frequency sources; 3, 4, 5 or more reference mixers are disposed, and the losses of the multiple mixers can be obtained by combining more equations to achieve batch testing of the multiple mixers, and the specific test method is the same as that in Embodiment 1 and will not be repeated here.

Embodiment 3

[0057] Embodiment 3 of the present disclosure provides a system for testing the conversion losses of terahertz mixers capable of eliminating the influence of radio frequency sources, including a mixer to be tested, two reference mixers and a spectrum analyzer;

[0058] all the mixers being grouped in pairs, and in each group, a signal of a preset frequency and a preset power being input at an intermediate frequency port of a first mixer;

[0059] a signal up-converted through the first mixer being output to a radio frequency port of a second mixer through a directional coupler and input into the spectrum analyzer after being down-converted by the second mixer, and an output power with the frequency same as the preset frequency being obtained so as to obtain the relationship between a first output power and a first preset power and the losses of two mixers;

[0060] according to the relationship between the loss of the mixer in each group and the power, the loss of the mixer to be tested being obtained.

[0061] The operation method of the system is the same as the method for testing the conversion losses of terahertz mixers capable of eliminating the influence of radio frequency sources provided in Embodiment 1 and will not be repeated here.

Embodiment 4

[0062] Embodiment 4 of the present disclosure provides a system for testing the conversion losses of terahertz mixers capable of eliminating the influence of radio frequency sources, including a mixer to be tested, three (may also be four, five or more) reference mixers and a spectrum analyzer, and other parts are same as those in Embodiment 3 and will not be repeated here.

[0063] A person skilled in the art should understand that the embodiments of the present disclosure may be provided as a method, a system, or a computer program product. Therefore, the present disclosure may use a form of hardware embodiments, software embodiments, or embodiments combining software and hardware. In addition, the present disclosure may use a form of a computer program product implemented on one or more computer-usable storage media (including but not limited to a disk memory and an optical memory) including computer-usable program code.

[0064] The present disclosure is described with reference to flowcharts and/or block diagrams of the method, apparatus (system), and computer program product in the embodiments of the present disclosure. It should be understood that computer program instructions can implement each procedure and/or block in the flowcharts and/or block diagrams and a combination of procedures and/or blocks in the flowcharts and/or block diagrams. These computer program instructions may be provided to a general-purpose computer, a dedicated computer, an embedded processor, or a processor of other programmable data processing apparatuses to generate a machine, so that the instructions executed by the computer or the processor of other programmable data processing apparatuses generate a device for implementing a specific function in one or more processes in the flowcharts and/or in one or more blocks in the block diagrams.

[0065] These computer program instructions may alternatively be stored in a computer-readable memory that can instruct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatuses to work in a specific manner, so that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory generate an artifact that includes an instruction device. The instruction device implements a specific function in one or more procedures in the flowcharts and/or in one or more blocks in the block diagrams.

[0066] These computer program instructions may further be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatuses, so that a series of operations and steps are performed on the computer or the other programmable apparatuses, thereby generating computer-implemented processing. Therefore, the instructions executed on the computer or the other programmable apparatuses provide steps for implementing a specific function in one or more procedures in the flowcharts and/or in one or more blocks in the block diagrams.

[0067] A person of ordinary skill in the art may understand that all or some of the procedures of the methods of the foregoing embodiments may be implemented by a computer program instructing relevant hardware. The program may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. When the program is executed, the procedures of the foregoing method embodiments may be implemented. The foregoing storage medium may include a magnetic disc, an optical disc, a read-only memory (ROM) and a random access memory (RAM).

[0068] The foregoing descriptions are merely preferred embodiments of the present disclosure, but are not intended to limit the present disclosure. The present disclosure may include various modifications and changes for a person skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, or improvement and the like made within the spirit and principle of the present disclosure shall fall within the protection scope of the present disclosure.