CalPods provide a new and unique way to quickly and easily refresh a network analyzer calibration, at the push of a button and without removing the DUT or re-connecting standards. Very useful in thermal-vacuum chamber testing, where it is desired to remove the thermal effects of the test cables and connectors from the DUT’s response, and where it is impractical to stop the testing to perform a normal re-calibration.
CalPods operate with the following PNA family of network analyzers: PNA-X N524xA, PNA N522xA, and PNA-L N5231/32/34/35/39A. Operation of the CalPods requires specific CalPod firmware for the PNA, an 85523B CalPod Controller, and to control more than four CalPods the 85556A fan-out cable splitter is required.
PNA Firmware Option 302: Application for use with temperature-characterized CalPods (required)
PNA firmware option 302 is used for temperature characterized and thermal-vacuum environment CalPods, and provides accurate re-correction capabilities over the temperature range of -30 °C to +80 °C. With firmware option 302, up to 48 CalPods can be controlled, but only four CalPods at a time can be recorrected.
PNA Firmware Option 304: Application for CalPod as ECal capability (optional)
PNA firmware option 304 is used to characterize CalPods with an ECal module, and allow the CalPods to function as an ECal module in the measurement environment. This capability is particularly useful when making multi-port and multi-path measurements, as it greatly simplifies calibrations for these types of measurements. The CalPods as ECal feature allows a one-port calibration to be performed on each port of a multi-port DUT. Then with any two one-port calibrations, and one unknown thru path measurement, the corresponding full two-port 12 term error correction model can be determined for that corresponding thru path.