Balanced Six-Port Reflectometer With Nonmatched Power Detectors

In this article, a six-port reflectometer is proposed, which utilizes nonmatched power detectors. In the presented solution, the signals reflected from power detectors are efficiently used to obtain a signal flow required for correct measurements. As a consequence, impedance matching networks for power detectors are no longer needed. Simultaneously, due to its balanced topology, the developed six-port exhibits advantageous measurement conditions and theoretically ideal matching at both its input and measurement ports. To experimentally validate the proposed concept, a six-port reflectometer operating at 2.4 GHz is designed, manufactured, and utilized in reflection coefficient measurements. The obtained results are consistent with the values measured using a commercial vector network analyzer. For additional verification, the impact of power detectors’ asymmetry is investigated theoretically and experimentally.