TDR excessive reactance - RF Cafe Forums

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tklosa

Post subject: TDR excessive reactance

Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 12:39 pm

Captain

Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2011 12:03 pm
Posts: 5

Hi all,

for some weeks now, I'm glad to have an Agilent 54754A based TDR in my lab to analyze PCB structures. On one PCB I analyzed the transition from the PCB wave guide into an RF connector and found a positive bump indicating a more or less inductive behaviour for this section.
The system allows the positioning of two markers and calculates the excessive reactance in between these markers. This is really valuable to determine the correct compensation, or to find a way to reduce the excess.
For the section of interest I get round about 630nH of inductance if I place the markers left and right of it. So far so good.
Questionable to me is the behaviour that I see if I move the markers closer together to cover only a part of this inductive discontinuity. At a certain point, when the left quarter of the discontinuity is outside the markers the display jumps over and starts showing fF and further in pF values. I'd like to make clear, that all the curve in between the markers is clearly >50Ohm.
I have started a support case and received a number of AppNotes on TDR measurements, but no clear statement yet. The system is in the market for quite some time and I checked I use the latest software from Aug2011. :smt102

I will try to make screenshots visible here in this thread to illustrate the description and I'm still searching the solution in between screen an chair fo course. :wink:

I wonder if somebody has a similar system available, or has a good explanation for this observation.

Many Thanks, Thomas.

tklosa

Post subject: Re: TDR excessive reactance

Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 12:49 pm

Captain

Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2011 12:03 pm
Posts: 5

OK, this is an image of the curve, with the markers set left and right of the complete discontinuity, showing the 630nH:

tklosa

Post subject: Re: TDR excessive reactance

Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 1:02 pm

Captain

Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2011 12:03 pm
Posts: 5

Now here is a screenshot where the left marker was moved a little right and the excessive reactance is displaying 91fF...

tklosa

Post subject: Re: TDR excessive reactance

Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 1:16 pm

Captain

Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2011 12:03 pm
Posts: 5

In this screen shot the right marker was moved left and the display is 25fF.

tklosa

Post subject: Re: TDR excessive reactance

Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 1:19 pm

Captain

Joined: Tue Nov 15, 2011 12:03 pm
Posts: 5

Last one the other way around. The markers are in a section below 50Ohm but the display is 90pH.

Posted 11/12/2012

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