RF Test and Measurement

This extensive tutorial provides a thorough foundation for the understanding of piezoelectric/crystal resonators properties and behaviors. The table of contents provides insight into just how comprehensive this tutorial is:

1. Applications and Requirements

2. Quartz Crystal Oscillators

3. Quartz Crystal Resonators

4. Oscillator Stability

5. Quartz Material Properties

6. Atomic Frequency Standards

7. Oscillator Comparison and Specification

8. Time and Timekeeping

9. Related Devices and Applications

Tutorials page from the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control society website. The page lists several free tutorials that are available to download on topics such as low noise oscillators, phase noise, and crystal resonators.

Reflectometer slide rules were handy for quickly looking up conversions between SWR, return loss, and reflection coefficient. Use this slide rule right on your computer (is this an anachronism?) in any JavaScript enabled web browser!

This app note gives some good background for improving the accuracy of noise figure measurements.

Some noteworthy topics covered include: when to use a noise source with a larger or smaller ENR, choosing the appropriate measurement bandwidth, and factors to take into account when making measurements on frequency-conversion devices (mixers).

This book was formerly featured on the Keysight RF Test blog with the following recommendation: "This book collects the essentials in one place, with the techniques, equations, explanations and examples that you’ll need to do the whole measurement job." The earliest version of this book appeared in the 1990's, the new edition has updates to cover recent developments such as "real-time" spectrum analyzers.

This app note briefly discusses ten different useful topics related to making VNA measurements.
From the table of contents:
HINT 1. Measuring high-power amplifiers
HINT 2. Compensating for time delay in cable measurements
HINT 3. Improving reflection measurements
HINT 4. Using frequency-offset for mixer, converter and tuner measurements
HINT 5. Increasing the accuracy of noninsertible device measurements
HINT 6. Aliasing in phase or delay format
HINT 7. Quick VNA calibration verification

This app note describes the techniques that can be used to measure devices requiring a high input signal level. Although the steps listed are specific to the E5072 ENA Network Analyzer, the concepts of using a configurable test set apply to other brands and models as well.

These seminar notes give a good discussion of the principles of phase noise. Specifically the authors describe the difference between measuring phase noise directly or using phase/frequency demodulation techniques. The notes describe details about the limitations and equipment performance requirements for making phase noise measurements using a variety of techniques. Since these notes are from an older archive, the latest techniques involving the use of correlation are not described.