Designing a low-cost high-performance 10 MHz – 15 GHz vector network analyzer • Hacker News Board

Re: Designing a low-cost high-performance 10 MHz – 15 GHz vector network analyzer

#11

Post by henrikf » Tue, Apr 15, 2025, 9:10 PM UTC

polishdude20 wrote: post #10

Any writeup of how the software was written?

There's not much software. PC calculates PLL register values for correct LO and source output frequencies, and transfers them to the FPGA which writes them to the hardware. FPGA accumulates the downconverted samples from the receiver ADCs. Samples are transferred to PC which calculates ratios of the receiver outputs to get uncorrected S-parameters. scikit-rf Python library is used for calibration and plotting.

Re: Designing a low-cost high-performance 10 MHz – 15 GHz vector network analyzer

#12

Post by kayson » Tue, Apr 15, 2025, 9:23 PM UTC

Very impressive. Interesting how expensive the components get. I'm guessing it's more of a "anyone who really needs this can afford it" kind of thing.

Re: Designing a low-cost high-performance 10 MHz – 15 GHz vector network analyzer

#13

Post by Zeetah » Tue, Apr 15, 2025, 9:32 PM UTC

@henrikf - can you share where you got the CNC done? Thanks.

Re: Designing a low-cost high-performance 10 MHz – 15 GHz vector network analyzer

#14

Post by kayson » Tue, Apr 15, 2025, 9:52 PM UTC

Have you considered making something more expensive with better performance? Commercially? You mention Keysight VNA's in the $10,000+ range, but we regularly buy VNA's in the $100,000+ range. I imagine with a $1000 budget you could do quite a lot.

Re: Designing a low-cost high-performance 10 MHz – 15 GHz vector network analyzer

#15

Post by tiffanyh » Tue, Apr 15, 2025, 10:07 PM UTC

TIL: Vector Network Analyzers (VNAs) tests component specifications and verify design simulations, ensuring system compatibility.

Re: Designing a low-cost high-performance 10 MHz – 15 GHz vector network analyzer

#16

Post by onenukecourse » Tue, Apr 15, 2025, 10:24 PM UTC

henrikf wrote: post #2

Thanks for the submission. Author here if you have any questions.

I just want to say thank you for your work. I bought one for the lab last year and I love it. Maybe even saved my job.

Re: Designing a low-cost high-performance 10 MHz – 15 GHz vector network analyzer

#17

Post by halayli » Tue, Apr 15, 2025, 11:23 PM UTC

If you're interested in RF circuits, I highly recommend taking a look at X-MWblocks prototyping framework by https://quanticxmw.com/

Re: Designing a low-cost high-performance 10 MHz – 15 GHz vector network analyzer

#18

Post by krapht » Wed, Apr 16, 2025, 12:01 AM UTC

It's so rare to see work at this level posted online. RF experimentation isn't as popular as it used to be. I enjoyed this article!

Re: Designing a low-cost high-performance 10 MHz – 15 GHz vector network analyzer

#19

Post by certku3 » Wed, Apr 16, 2025, 12:09 AM UTC

henrikf wrote: post #2

Thanks for the submission. Author here if you have any questions.

I'm surprised you're not using SMA edge connectors designed for 15G. The ones you're using, with the long center pin, aren't really 50 ohm above 6G. Higher freq SMAs have really tiny center pin for SMT soldering with low capacitance.

Re: Designing a low-cost high-performance 10 MHz – 15 GHz vector network analyzer

#20

Post by CamperBob2 » Wed, Apr 16, 2025, 12:34 AM UTC

proee wrote: post #6

henrikf wrote: post #2

Thanks for the submission. Author here if you have any questions.

Can you please create a high speed oscilloscope next? :-)

Depending on what you mean by 'high speed', this project may be of interest: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/crowd-funded-projects/haasosco...!