How To Choose Microwave RF Coaxial Test Cable Correctly

- Dec 20 2017 - Any DUT is located between the signal generator and the analyzer, and the bridge connecting the DUT and the instrument is the test attachment or the test system. Do not ignore these test accessories. When conditions are available, it is best to solidify these test accessories to make it a standardized measurement system. When providing the machine, the instrument supplier will provide most of the test cables that correspond to the highest working frequency of the instrument. In the real test process, various situations will be encountered and different accessories are needed. All these attachments will affect the accuracy of the measurement results.
In choosing the specifications of the cable in the test system, the stability of the cable must be better than the insertion loss and the VSWR. In the RF and microwave frequency bands, the common cables are divided into semi-rigid cable, semi flexible cable and flexible braided cable, and so on. Three kinds of cables are used. The flexible cable is used as a "test class" cable. Compared to semi rigid and semi flexible cables, the cost of flexible cables is relatively expensive, which is because more factors should be taken into account when the flexible cable is designed. Flexible cables are easy to bend many times and maintain performance, which is the most basic requirement for testing cables. Soft and good electrical indicators are a pair of contradictions, and are also the main cause of the increase in cost. The flexible cable must maintain the stability of the amplitude and phase under the bending condition. Generally speaking, the cable with single conductor inner conductor is conducive to the stability of the amplitude. The cables with multiple inner conductors are conducive to the stability of the phase, so it is difficult to reach two of the two indicators only. GORE has many years of flexible test cable core material of low density PFFE (e-PTFE, ePTFE, low dielectric constant to 1.3) the mastery and application of technology, innovation and technology without gap in the successful implementation of the armor, armored cable and mechanical performance testing of electrical energy in the perfect combination, greatly prolong the service life the test cable at the same time, also retained the power index of GORE cable used to have excellent and stable, while also retaining the light weight and high flexibility.
Attention should be paid to the process of joint and cable connection, which will affect the service life of the cable. In this part, there is a hard point of contact between the traditional cable and connector, it is easy to cause the fracture of cable, which is the most the most troublesome Test Engineer in the testing process using the traditional test cable problem, which is not simply the heat shrinkable sleeve can be resolved, because the fracture is often hard contact point the test cable in frequent bending, tension through cable transmission to the hard point of contact, the result of hard contact aging and fracture. Flexible test cable armored tradition since Needless to say, because there is no protective armor layer, even in the cable and joint using enhanced heat shrinkable sleeve type can effectively prolong the service life of the cable test; while the traditional armoured cable and armoured armoured layer because there is a gap between the signal layer and the transport layer, tension or will the cable bending after transfer to the hard point of contact, caused by the cable in use after a period of index change. In order to effectively solve the above traditional test cable problems in practical applications, the design of GORE armor without gaps in bending of the cable in close condition, caused by bending and torsion tension as far as possible to the average distribution of cable machinery armouring layer. In order to reduce hard contact and signal transmission layer, thereby to achieve and prolong the service life of electrical stability index.