SPRINGER BRIEFS IN ELEC TRIC AL AND COMPUTER

ENGINEERING  COMPUTATIONAL ELECTROMAGNETICS

Satyakesh Dubey
Naina Narang
Parmendra Singh Negi
Vijay Narain Ojha

LabVIEW Based
Automation
Guide for
Microwave
Measurements

123
SpringerBriefs in Electrical and Computer
Engineering

SpringerBriefs in Computational Electromagnetics

Series editors
K.J. Vinoy, Bangalore, India
Rakesh Mohan Jha (Late), Bangalore, India
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13885
Satyakesh Dubey Naina Narang
•

Parmendra Singh Negi Vijay Narain Ojha

•

LabVIEW Based Automation

Guide for Microwave
Measurements

123
Satyakesh Dubey Parmendra Singh Negi
Microwave Standards, TFEEMD CSIR-National Physical Laboratory of India
CSIR-National Physical Laboratory of India New Delhi
New Delhi India
India
Vijay Narain Ojha
Naina Narang Microwave Standards, TFEEMD
CSIR-National Physical Laboratory of India CSIR-National Physical Laboratory of India
New Delhi New Delhi
India India

ISSN 2191-8112 ISSN 2191-8120 (electronic)

SpringerBriefs in Electrical and Computer Engineering
ISSN 2365-6239 ISSN 2365-6247 (electronic)
SpringerBriefs in Computational Electromagnetics
ISBN 978-981-10-6279-7 ISBN 978-981-10-6280-3 (eBook)
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Preface

At times, the proper use of a synchronized set of instruments becomes indispens-

able for scientists and engineers in developing an accurate measurement or test
setup. Also, the need for automated execution is always felt in day-to-day work in
measurement laboratories for faster execution and reduced manual interference in
the measurement process. If we consider the microwave measurements, in partic-
ular, it involves the use of advanced electronics, embedded systems, and micro-
controllers. Proper use of such advanced devices in synchronization becomes
important for the development of measurement facilities in laboratories such as
NMIs and defense research institutes, where accuracy and precision play one of the
most crucial roles. This book guides the readers for developing a standalone
graphical user interface (GUI) and explains the software development process for
effective microwave measurements. An effort is made to develop such a software
application, which is independent of the measurement setup and measurand, i.e., the
quantities intended to be measured. The critical considerations for quality assurance
of the developed system are studied and illustrated in a way, which is suitable for
beginners and experts in measurement laboratories. A worked out example is used
throughout the book, which is used for various test procedures with different
sources, receivers, and devices under test (DUT). The measurement results are
illustrated for comparison of automated and manual execution of the measurement
process. The approaches required for optimizing the tests for time, reliability, and
throughput are formulated and used during the development process. All in all, the
book is an easy guide for scientists and engineers for development of automated
laboratory measurements with quality assurance, efficiency optimization, and
adherence to the quality standards for using the software in metrological
applications.

New Delhi, India Satyakesh Dubey

Naina Narang
Parmendra Singh Negi
Vijay Narain Ojha

v
Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 LabVIEW Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1 Basic Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1.1 Virtual Instruments (VI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1.2 Front Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1.3 Block Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 LabVIEW Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3 Virtual Instrumentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3.1 Virtual Instrumentation Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3.2 General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3.3 Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments
(SCPI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3.4 Instrument Control in LabVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.4 Advanced LabVIEW Programming Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3 Microwave Measurement Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.1 Basic Microwave Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.1.1 Microwave Signal Generators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.1.2 Microwave Receivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.2 Basic Microwave Measurement Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.2.1 Attenuation Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.2.2 Microwave Power Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.2.3 Scattering Parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.3 Uncertainty Evaluation in Attenuation Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.3.1 Uncertainty in Power Ratio Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.3.2 Uncertainty in IF Substitution Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.3.3 Comparison of Measurement Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

vii
viii Contents

3.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.5 Precap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4 Software Development. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.1 LabVIEW-Based Automatic Measurement System . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.1.1 Software Requirement Specifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.1.2 Design of Graphical User Interface (GUI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.1.3 Configuring Transmitter, DUT, and Receiver . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.1.4 System Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.1.5 System Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.1.6 System Features and Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.2 Software Validation and Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5 Measurement Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.1 Data Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.2 Uncertainty Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.3 Comparison of Results with Manual Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.4 Report Generation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
About the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
List of Figures

Fig. 2.1 Front panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 4

Fig. 2.2 Block diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 5
Fig. 2.3 Basic idea of virtual instrument (VI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 6
Fig. 2.4 NI measurement and automation explorer (MAX) for
detecting GPIB instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 7
Fig. 2.5 GPIB functions a read and b write . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 8
Fig. 2.6 Simple GPIB read and write functions used to communicate
with the connected GPIB device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Fig. 3.1 Commonly used microwave signal generators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Fig. 3.2 Commonly used receivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Fig. 3.3 Types of power sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Fig. 3.4 The essential microwave parameters and their measurement
discussed in this chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 14
Fig. 3.5 Attenuation measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 15
Fig. 3.6 Power ratio technique a Schematic Diagram. b Attenuation
measurement system controlled by the PC using LabVIEW
application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 15
Fig. 3.7 30 MHz IF substitution technique a Schematic diagram.
b Attenuation measurement system controlled by the PC
using LabVIEW application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 16
Fig. 3.8 Power measurement system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 17
Fig. 3.9 An example of RF system that exploits the linearity advantage
of power sensors—Fluke 96270A 27 GHz low phase noise
reference source. Courtesy Fluke Calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 18
Fig. 3.10 Two-port device in terms of S-parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 18
Fig. 3.11 Generalized method for microwave measurement . . . . . . . . . .. 22
Fig. 3.12 Custom designed LabVIEW application for attenuation
measurement using power ratio or IF substitution
technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 23
Fig. 4.1 An example of software requirement specification of
attenuation measurement software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 26

ix
x List of Figures

Fig. 4.2 Example GUI of the developed automated calibration

software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Fig. 4.3 Example of block diagram code for a turning on the source
and b reading attenuation from Tegam’s VM-7 (GPIB
address: 6) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Fig. 4.4 A model of automated measurement system based on virtual
instrumentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Fig. 4.5 Flow of GPIB functions in power ratio technique . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Fig. 4.6 Simple measurement settings file to be given by the user using
MS Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Fig. 4.7 VI for execution timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Fig. 5.1 Basic architecture for automated attenuation measurement setup 36
Fig. 5.2 Example LabVIEW VI block diagram for combined
uncertainty evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Fig. 5.3 Validation of results using En-ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Fig. 5.4 Comparison of Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Fig. 5.5 Example report generation VI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Fig. 5.6 Block diagram demonstrating report generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
List of Tables

Table 4.1 Configuring instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 28

Table 4.2 Main LabVIEW Functions used in given example. . . . ....... 31
Table 5.1 Sources of uncertainty in power ratio technique
up to 30 dB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 37
Table 5.2 Sources of uncertainty in IF substitution technique
up to 60 dB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 37
Table 5.3 Experimental results and comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....... 38

xi
About the Authors

Dr. Satya Kesh Dubey [email protected], was born in 1984 in Madhuban,

Mau (U.P.), India. He completed his Ph.D. in Electronics from Allahabad
University, Allahabad, India, with eight international journal papers. He joined
National Institute of Technology Raipur (C.G.) as lecturer in 2009. He served
Institute for Plasma Research as postdoctoral fellow for a year during 2009–2010 in
microwave diagnostic group. Again he joined National Aerospace Laboratories,
Bangalore as scientist fellow in computational electromagnetic group founded by
the eminent scientist late Dr. R.M. Jha. He joined National Physical Laboratory,
New Delhi as Scientist in Microwave Activity. He has guided more than 15 M.
Tech. students with four enrolled Ph.D. scholars. He has published 35 papers in
different international journals and conference proceedings with h- index 8 and
i- index 6. His current area of research is biological effect of EM radiations,
electreomagnetic-induced transparency, E-field probes and sensors, SAR probes,
microstrip antenna, millimeter wave, and computational modeling of biological
tissue in EM radiations.

Naina Narang [email protected], is a Computer Science Graduate from

Kurukshetra University, India and is working as Assistant Professor at Department
of Computer and Communication Engineering, School of Computing and
Information Technology Manipal University, Jaipur, India. She had worked with
Dr. Satya Kesh Dubey as Ph.D. research scholar for the establishment of Standards
of Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) at National Physical Laboratory. She has a keen
interest in instrument control, LabVIEW programming for automation, computa-
tional and numerical techniques for electromagnetics.

Parmendra Singh Negi [email protected], Head Microwave Standards,

TFEEMD, CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi. He has an experience
of more than 30 years and expertise in attenuation and impedance measurement. He
has piloted/participated in several key/supplementary comparisons at international
level. He had developed mismatch standards, WBCO-based primary standard for

xiii
xiv About the Authors

attenuation with high accuracy and is author of more than 100 journal and con-
ference papers.

Dr. Vijay Narain Ojha [email protected], Head, TFEEM Division. He worked

as Scientist at CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi for more than 30
years and now leads the Electrical and Electronics Standards in India. He has keen
research interest in low-temperature microwave measurements, Josephson junction,
quantum Hall effect and Watt balance, and is author of more than 100 journal and
conference papers.
Chapter 1
Introduction

In a very conventional approach, it can be stated that every microwave measure-

ment consists of a transmitter, a receiver and a device under test (DUT). The
transmitter can be an economical signal generator or a stable and precise radio
frequency (RF) source. Similarly, the receiver can be a spectrum analyzer, vector
network analyzer (VNA), power meter with RF power sensor, or a receiver specific
for particular measurement such as TEGAM VM-7 attenuation measurement sys-
tem. The DUT, on the other hand, is the instrument or device whose electrical
properties are intended to be measured. In a microwave metrology laboratory, a
DUT can be a fixed attenuator, step attenuator, airline, waveguide, or any other
component such as mixer, directional coupler, power divider or an amplifier.
For any microwave measurement process, these instruments can be configured for
automatic operation using the various commercially available application devel-
opment platforms such as MATLAB, Agilent VEE Pro, or National Instruments
(NI) LabVIEW. The automated software solution for a measurement process may
minimize the human involvement and thus reducing the errors and improving
efficiency.
In the automated measurement setup, the instruments are given a remote control;
therefore, an appropriate step by step approach is to be used for software devel-
opment for proper execution of the measurement process. The main considerations
for a developer that arise before the development process of automation software
are as follows:
• What is to be measured and what are the instruments to be controlled?
• How the control flows within the experimental setup?
• What development techniques are to be followed for producing quality results?
• Does the approach used benefit the end user as compared to a manual execution?
This book addresses these questions in detail with worked out examples of some
important microwave measurements for direct reference. The intended readers are
those who are responsible for regular measurements and calibrations mainly in the

© The Author(s) 2018 1

S. Dubey et al., LabVIEW Based Automation Guide for Microwave Measurements,
SpringerBriefs in Computational Electromagnetics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6280-3_1
2 1 Introduction

metrology laboratories and wish for a faster execution of the experiment with the
use of customized automation software.
This book is divided into six chapters. Chapter 2 provides the basic knowledge
about the LabVIEW and its programming for instrument control. LabVIEW, i.e.,
Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench, is a graphical program-
ming language developed by NI for customized solution in test and measurement
laboratories. The chapter explains the control of the commonly used instruments
and devices in microwave measurements using LabVIEW. It will be seen that
LabVIEW provides an easy and fast way for automating measurements. It can be
used to control the instruments using bus level communications in a more
user-friendly way as compared to C, .NET, or MATLAB codes.
Chapter 3 introduces the readers with the common microwave measurements,
their execution, uncertainty evaluation, and applications.
Chapter 4 describes the detailed procedure of the software development process
and addresses the major considerations for ensuring the software validity and
compliance with the quality standards that are required to use the software in
metrological applications. The book guides the engineers and technicians for
implementing complete calibration software with enough details to start from
scratch.
Chapter 5 discusses the measured results and evaluation of uncertainty in the
measurement. Comparison of the results with manual execution is reported for
every example to ensure the benefit of the end user. Data collection, analysis, and
report generation are explained in detail.
Chapter 6 concludes carried out study. A completely automated calibration
process for microwave measurements is created and concluded.
An ample number of examples, illustrations, flowcharts, measurement results,
and screen shots of a worked out automation software for microwave measurement
are incorporated to provide real-life experience to the readers.
Chapter 2
LabVIEW Programming

This chapter provides the basic knowledge about the LabVIEW and its program-
ming for instrument control. LabVIEW, i.e., Laboratory Virtual Instrument
Engineering Workbench, is a graphical programming language used by test and
measurement researchers and engineers for building customized software solution
to their experiments [1–3]. It has an easy approach and can be used with ease. The
chapter provides sufficient information to the reader for starting basic programming
in LabVIEW for instrument control. This chapter can be used as a guide to connect
the instrument to the computer system and basic input/output instructions. The
programming in LabVIEW environment is based data-flow method and is mostly
graphical and easy to understand.
The chapter will provide the brief introduction to LabVIEW, LabVIEW pro-
gramming and its instrument control capabilities. It will cover the basic features to
give an understanding of the LabVIEW programming language and its environ-
ment. Examples for controlling the RF instruments explained in this chapter will
help to develop calibration suite for attenuation given in Chap. 4.

2.1 Basic Concepts

In this section, we will discuss the basic concepts about LabVIEW and its pro-
gramming technique. The section is self-contained and is sufficient to understand
the basics of instrument control using LabVIEW.

2.1.1 Virtual Instruments (VI)

Virtual Instrument (VI) is the file on which LabVIEW coding is done. It comprises
two components—front panel and block diagram. The front panel is used to provide
© The Author(s) 2018 3
S. Dubey et al., LabVIEW Based Automation Guide for Microwave Measurements,
SpringerBriefs in Computational Electromagnetics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6280-3_2
4 2 LabVIEW Programming

the control components such as a regulatory knob, string input, numerical input or
string display. The front panel serves as the graphical user interface and can be
easily designed. The block diagram, on the other hand, consists of the programming
functions such as algebraic operations, instrument input/output, signal processing,
data communication, and error handling. The programming logic is implemented on
the block diagram using the different functions available with it.

2.1.2 Front Panel

The front panel which also serves as the graphical user interface for LabVIEW
application is used to simulate the input and output mechanism. The input from the
user which is to be sent to the instruments can be entered through the numeric
controls, text controls, or Boolean input. Similarly, for the displaying the output
numeric, text, and Boolean indicators are used on the front panel. Figure 2.1 shows
the numeric and string controls and indicators that can be used to design the front
panel. The controls are driven by the user, and the indicators are used to display the
execution results. In the figure, Numeric 1 and Numeric 2 are the numeric controls,
String is the text control, Result is the numeric indicator, and String Length is the
text indicator.

Fig. 2.1 Front panel

2.1 Basic Concepts 5

2.1.3 Block Diagram

The front panel shown in Fig. 2.1 will automatically be accompanied by the block
diagram. Pressing Ctrl + E opens the block diagram. For the previous example, the
node used for the controls and indicators will automatically appear on the block
diagram. Figure 2.2 shows the corresponding nodes of the control and indicators
used in Fig. 2.1. There are various functions available on the block diagram, for
example, the arithmetic operation of addition is used to add Numeric 1 and Numeric
2. Also, programming operations on text can also be done, for example, string
length function is used on String Control to calculate the string length indicated on
the String Length indicator.
It can be realized by the LabVIEW user that LabVIEW provides an easy and
shortcut methods to basic programming problems. As in the given example, the
string length function is an easy way that takes off the burden from the programmer,
unlike the other programming languages, to write a detailed code for retrieving the
length of the string.

Fig. 2.2 Block diagram

6 2 LabVIEW Programming

2.2 LabVIEW Features

From the introduction above, it is evident that LabVIEW is an easy-to-learn pro-

gramming language based on data flow used for the implementation of the modern
measurement setup. There are some applications in which LabVIEW is the most
preferred choice, such as
• Instrument control
• Acquiring and analyzing measurement data
• Designing of embedded systems and field-programmable gate array (FPGA)
• Automated test and validation systems.
In this book, only instrument control and automated test systems are imple-
mented and explained. You will see in Chap. 4, how an example of attenuation
measurement system is automated to provide reduced test time and efficient result
analysis.

2.3 Virtual Instrumentation

2.3.1 Virtual Instrumentation Foundation

Virtual instrumentation is a modern technique used to emulate the manual execu-

tion of a measurement with the help of a computer system [4]. The basic idea of the
virtual instrument is shown in Fig. 2.3. The virtual instrument aims to provide
better accuracy and precision with minimum manual interference in the measure-
ment. LabVIEW is one the powerful languages which can be used to build virtual
instruments.

2.3.2 General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB)

The General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB) is a parallel communication interface

generally used for instrument control. This bus when connected to the PC at one

Fig. 2.3 Basic idea of virtual instrument (VI)

2.3 Virtual Instrumentation 7

end and GPIB compatible instrument(s) at the other end, then the PC can be used as
a system controller for the connected instrument(s). The main features of this bus
are the following:
• Standardized as IEEE 488
• 8-bit parallel communication using asynchronous handshaking protocol
• The bus has 24-pin configuration where eight are data lines, five are bus
management lines, three are handshake lines, and eight are ground lines
• One system controller and 14 instruments can be connected to a single GPIB
• The GPIB instruments on the bus are uniquely identified by 5-bit GPIB
(Primary) address ranging between 0 and 30.
Using the NI Measurement and Automation Explorer (MAX), one can detect
and configure the connected GPIB instruments on the PC. Figure 2.4 shows a GPIB
instrument detected by the NI MAX. This is possibly the first step toward the
learning of instrument control and virtual instrumentation.

Fig. 2.4 NI measurement and automation explorer (MAX) for detecting GPIB instrument
8 2 LabVIEW Programming

2.3.3 Standard Commands for Programmable Instruments

(SCPI)

Fig. 2.4, the GPIB instrument with primary address 28 is connected to the PC.
Using the NI-488.2 Communicator, one can communicate with the instrument by
sending the query. For example, when string *IDN? is sent as a query, the detailed
identity of the connected instrument is returned. Here, *IDN? is an SCPI command.

2.3.4 Instrument Control in LabVIEW

To start instrument control using LabVIEW, one must be acquainted with the GPIB
or Virtual Instrument Software Architecture (VISA) functions. Figure 2.5 shows
the input and output wires of GPIB read and write functions. GPIB read function is
used to retrieve the information from the GPIB device to the controller, i.e., the PC
and GPIB write is used for sending the command from the controller to the con-
nected GPIB instrument.
The use of these two functions is shown in Fig. 2.6. The *IDN? command sent
to the source of GPIB address 28 using NI MAX is shown in Fig. 2.4. The same
operation may be programmed on LabVIEW, as given in Fig. 2.6, using simple
GPIB write and read functions. In the same manner, other SCPI commands can be
sent and bus data can be retrieved for the development of LabVIEW application for
instrument control. In Chap. 4, you will see that GPIB read and write functions are
used to develop the attenuation measurement suite on LabVIEW virtual instrument.

Fig. 2.5 GPIB functions

a read and b write
2.4 Advanced LabVIEW Programming Techniques 9

Fig. 2.6 Simple GPIB read and write functions used to communicate with the connected GPIB
device

2.4 Advanced LabVIEW Programming Techniques

Although the programming capabilities of LabVIEW are large in number, only the
techniques used in the subsequent chapters are discussed in this section. The major
focus of this book is to provide the basic introduction to the programming tech-
niques required to automate the commonly used microwave tests and measure-
ments. Previously, the use of GPIB read and write function is demonstrated which
plays an important role in GPIB instrument control. Additionally, the advanced file
functions, dialogs, and user interface functions facilitate the development of
user-friendly virtual instrument. The use of these advanced LabVIEW features will
be demonstrated in Chap. 4.

References

1. R. Bitter, T. Mohiuddin, M. Nawrocki, LabVIEW: Advanced programming techniques, 2nd

edn. (CRC Press, Florida, 2006). ISBN: 0-8493-3325-3
2. G.W. Johnson, LabVIEW Graphical Programming, 4th edn. (Tata McGraw-Hill Education,
New York, 1997). ISBN: 0-07-145146-3
3. J. Travis, J. Kring, LabVIEW for Everyone: Graphical Programming Made Easy and Fun
(National instruments virtual instrumentation series), 3rd edn. (Prentice Hall PTR, New Jersey,
2006). ISBN: 0131856723
4. H. Goldberg, What is virtual instrumentation? IEEE Instrum. Measur. Mag. 3(4), 10–13 (2000)
Chapter 3
Microwave Measurement Systems

In this chapter, the measurement of common microwave parameters such as RF

power, attenuation, and scattering (S-) parameters are explained. An example of
automated attenuation measurement is taken in detail in the next chapter based on
the understanding acquired through this chapter about the nature of microwave
measurements. A brief description of each parameter, instrumentation, its mea-
surement setup, and uncertainty evaluation is given in the chapter. The first section
introduces the reader to the basic measurement equipment used in modern micro-
wave measurements. The next section enlists the common microwave measure-
ments. The microwave measurement methods are chosen and explained in order of
increasing complexity. For example, the power ratio technique uses a simple and
generally available power meter and sensor, whereas there are also systems avail-
able that are specific to a single parameter, for instance, TEGAM’s VM-7 for
microwave attenuation measurement. But some systems are even more versatile,
such as spectrum analyzer and vector network analyzer (VNA), which are used in
almost all microwave measurements.
Attenuation is one the most important properties of the device under test (DUT),
explained in the subsequent text. It is hence chosen for the worked out example of
automation in next chapter. The RF power measurement is also used for attenuation
measurement, which is based on Power Ratio principle. Subsequently, the under-
standing of microwave measurements will ensure readers’ ability to understand the
automation process.

3.1 Basic Microwave Instruments

Depending on the type of the measurement, generator and receivers vary from one
setup to another. For example, if attenuation is being measured for a fixed or step
attenuator, then the source can be a signal generator which may or may not be a
synthesized source. Similarly, the receiver varies. For attenuation measurement,
© The Author(s) 2018 11
S. Dubey et al., LabVIEW Based Automation Guide for Microwave Measurements,
SpringerBriefs in Computational Electromagnetics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6280-3_3
12 3 Microwave Measurement Systems

spectrum analyzer or VM-7 is used as a receiver. On the other hand, for

S-parameter measurement VNA is used as a source as well as the receiver.
Generally, software support for VNA is provided by the instrument manufacturers
itself for data acquisition. However, customized solutions can be developed as
explained in the subsequent chapters.

3.1.1 Microwave Signal Generators

Microwave signal generator is an electronic device that is used to generate the

microwave signal in the analog or digital domain. It is used as the source for
microwave measurements. Figure 3.1 enlists the various type of signal generators
commonly used in testing and measurements.
Function generators are suitable when different waveforms are to be studied. In
today’s scenario, free running signal generators have become obsolete due to the
better performance of synthesized sources. On the other hand, vector network
analyzer is a complete package. The source in VNA may be an oscillator or syn-
thesized source.

3.1.2 Microwave Receivers

The detection of a signal at the receiver end is important for any measurement. The
detection techniques are evolving day by day. Some of the commonly used
receivers in microwave tests and measurements are shown in Fig. 3.2.
(a) Power Sensor and Meter:
There are different techniques to measure microwave power. Based on the user
requirements, the techniques are adopted. The three main methods are given in
Fig. 3.3. Thermocouple- and thermistor-based power sensors are usually used for
higher accuracy, linearity, and stability. Diode detectors are widely used otherwise
where high accuracy is not essential.

Fig. 3.1 Commonly used microwave signal generators

3.1 Basic Microwave Instruments 13

Fig. 3.2 Commonly used receivers

Fig. 3.3 Types of power

sensors

(b) Tuned Receivers:

A tuned receiver is used for high sensitivity and dynamic range. For example,
commercially available TEGAM’s VM-7 is a 30 MHz tuned receiver which is used
with a mixer to down-convert the input RF signal to generate a 30 MHz interme-
diate frequency (IF). A local oscillator is present in VM-7 which is locked with the
generated 30 MHz signal for higher sensitivity.
These receivers tuned to a single frequency may play an important role in the
precise measurements of various parameters such as insertion loss, attenuation,
characteristics of microwave amplifiers or mixers, antenna measurement and RF
leakage.
(c) Spectrum Analyzer:
A spectrum analyzer is a measuring device used to display the signal in fre-
quency domain. It is used for various applications such as measuring modulation,
noise, harmonic and inter-modulation distortion. Apart from studying the properties
of the signal, electromagnetic compatibility diagnosis can also be made using
spectrum analyzers. In a way, the display of the spectrum analyzer gives the
physical realization of the signal and hence is widely used in microwave
measurements.
(d) Vector Network Analyzers:
Vector network analyzers (VNAs) are capable of providing magnitude as well as
the phase information for the measured S-parameter. The receiver in the VNA is now
generally a tuned receiver. However, in some cases, diode detection is also used at
the receiver end of the VNA, but drift in diode detector limits its performance
14 3 Microwave Measurement Systems

against the tuned receiver which has the better dynamic range and sensitivity. For
further details on the microwave devices, one may refer to Carvalho and
Schreurs [1].

3.2 Basic Microwave Measurement Methods

Once the reader is acquainted with the microwave measurement devices, it may get
easier to understand the measurement of different microwave parameters (Fig. 3.4).

3.2.1 Attenuation Measurement

Basic Concepts: Attenuation is a pure property of the device. It can be understood

as an insertion loss generated when a device is inserted in a perfectly matched
condition between the generator and load. It can be measured as the change in the
indicated power when RF power from an impedance matched source is passed first
directly and secondly through the DUT into a matched power sensor. The power
from the sensor is measured by a power meter. Attenuation is then expressed as


P1
AðdBÞ ¼ 10 log10 ; ð3:1Þ
P2

where P1 is the power indication without the attenuator in line, and P2 is the power
indication with the attenuator in line. The basic measurement setup is shown in
Fig. 3.5.

Fig. 3.4 The essential microwave parameters and their measurement discussed in this chapter
3.2 Basic Microwave Measurement Methods 15

Fig. 3.5 Attenuation measurement

The main techniques used for microwave attenuation measurement are power
ratio technique and IF substitution technique.
(a) Power Ratio Technique:
In Fig. 3.5, the receiver can be a power meter, VM-7 or a spectrum analyzer
depending on the measurement principle being implemented. If power ratio tech-
nique is being used to measure attenuation, then the receiver will be a power meter,
shown in Fig. 3.6. It is perhaps one of the easiest to configure. In power ratio
technique, the power sensor is preceded by a matching attenuator pad to an RF
source followed by a power sensor and the power meter indication is noted as P1.
Next, the device under test is inserted between the matching pad and power sensor.
Again the power meter indication is noted say, P2. The insertion loss is then
calculated using Eq. (3.1). Note that, unless the reflection coefficient of the

Fig. 3.6 Power ratio technique a Schematic Diagram. b Attenuation measurement system
controlled by the PC using LabVIEW application
16 3 Microwave Measurement Systems

generator (CG) and load (CL) at the insertion point is known to be zero, in Fig. 3.5,
or that the mismatch factor has been calculated and taken into consideration,
measured insertion loss and no attenuation is quoted. It is because the attenuation is
the property of the two-port network, whereas it is insertion loss which considers
the mismatch losses of signal generator and load (CG and CL).
(b) IF Substitution Technique:
If Intermediate Frequency (IF) substitution technique is implemented, then the
basic measurement system shown in Fig. 3.5 modifies as shown in Fig. 3.7. In the
IF substitution technique, the system compares the attenuation through the device
under calibration with an IF attenuation standard. A mixer along with an IF receiver
is introduced into the measurement system to generate the desired IF frequency. To
perform this substitution method, two different RF sources are required. A mixer
with calculated nonlinearity is deployed between the RF source and Local oscil-
lator. The mixer is a three-port device, two RF source will act as an input of the
mixer, and the difference between these frequencies will generate an intermediate
frequency on the output port. In the measurement, 30-MHz substitution technique is
deployed because of the 30-MHz tuned receiver (VM7), shown in Fig. 3.7. Here,
VM7 is a 30-MHz tuned receiver with the in-built local oscillator.

Fig. 3.7 30 MHz IF substitution technique a Schematic diagram. b Attenuation measurement

system controlled by the PC using LabVIEW application
3.2 Basic Microwave Measurement Methods 17

3.2.2 Microwave Power Measurement

In the RF or microwave frequency range, the power is the measure of signal

strength. It is given in Watts or dBm. The power in dBm denotes the logarithmic
value of 1 mW power, i.e., given as


P
PdBm ¼ log10 : ð3:2Þ
1 mW

Microwave power is measured using power sensors. The source is connected to

the load via power sensor, shown in Fig. 3.8. Power sensors are basically used for
converting the microwave power into measurable DC signal. There are mainly three
types of sensors—thermistor based, thermocouple based, and diode detector based.
Power measurement is of great importance in different fields such as telecommu-
nication and testing of equipments.
With recent introduction of systems, such as Fluke 96270A 27 GHz Low Phase
Noise Reference Source (Fig. 3.9), it is observed that performance of the power
sensors are improving. With the advent of technology, newer and improved power
sensors are making their place in the market due to their lower mismatch error,
higher linearity, and wider range as compared to RF mixers. Wideband power
sensors based on RF MEMS technology have been realized [2], and thus it is
expected that RF systems will be using power sensors soon to replace the present
market of resistive attenuators.

3.2.3 Scattering Parameter

Scattering parameters define the forward and reverse wave propagation through a
network. Abundant literature is available on the theoretical elucidation of
S-parameters [3]. A brief description here will help in understanding the basic
concept of S-parameter and its measurement. Considering the example of a
two-port network, shown in Fig. 3.10, S-parameters should define input and output
from the network. In general, the S-parameters for a two-port network can be
given as

Fig. 3.8 Power measurement system

18 3 Microwave Measurement Systems

Fig. 3.9 An example of RF system that exploits the linearity advantage of power sensors—Fluke
96270A 27 GHz low phase noise reference source. Courtesy Fluke Calibration

Fig. 3.10 Two-port device in terms of S-parameters

b1 ¼ S11 a1 þ S12 a2 ; ð3:3Þ

b2 ¼ S21 a1 þ S22 a2 ; ð3:4Þ

where a1 and a2 are the signals entering the Port 1 and Port 2 of the two-port
network and b1 and b2 are the signals leaving the respective ports.
So, for characterizing a two-port network for its S-parameters, a VNA com-
prising of a RF source, bridges/couplers, mixers, and tuned receiver are required in
order to measure the forward and reverse signals at both the ports.
3.3 Uncertainty Evaluation in Attenuation Measurement 19

3.3 Uncertainty Evaluation in Attenuation Measurement

Nowadays, it is a general practise to evaluate the uncertainty involved in the

experiment. It is unlike the previous days, when only metrologists working in the
field of precision measurements used to evaluate the uncertainty components of the
experiment. Besides, the meaning of uncertainty should be understood carefully.
The “Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement” (GUM) [4] defines
uncertainty as a “parameter, associated with the result of a measurement that
characterizes the dispersion of the values that could reasonably be attributed to the
measurand.”
However, the uncertainty should not be confused with error in measurement.
The error is difference between the measured value and the true value of the
measurand. So, for example, if reading 9.995 dB attenuation from a 10 dB
(Nominal value) attenuator, then 0.005 dB (= (10 − 9.995) dB) is the error. On the
other hand, the uncertainty in the measurement is to be calculated from the doubtful
parameters (e.g., leakage, cable loss, etc.). For example, a result given as
9.995 ± 0.010 dB, where 9.995 dB is the measured value and ±0.010 dB is the
uncertainty of the result. In this result, all the doubts have been quantified and
included in the result as ±0.010 dB.
The uncertainty contributions are analyzed to show confidence in the mea-
surement results. The GUM document compiles the procedure to calculate the
uncertainty. Adherence to the given procedure in GUM document creates uniform
understanding between different research laboratories all over the world. GUM
document is applicable for a large number of measurements and can be used
accordingly. National Measurement Institutes (NMIs) and accreditation laboratories
must use GUM document for uniform understanding and expression of
uncertainty [5].
When uncertainty is assessed, generally, some parameters contribute to uncer-
tainty of wide number of measurements, for example, meter resolution. Every
measurement consists of a receiver on which the measurand is read. And that very
receiver will have a limit on the resolution. A receiver may be capable of reading
0.1 dB attenuation, whereas other may possibly read up to 0.001 dB value. If the
limit is 0.1 dB, then we are definitely doubtful about the 1/100th place. And hence
it contributes to the uncertainty in the measurement.
There are some other parameters which are specifically the uncertainty con-
tributors in microwave measurements such as connector repeatability, mismatch
losses, directivity, and linearity. Here, the main concerns are the errors that are
caused by the RF leakage, power instability, frequency drift, and RF connectors.
Once the uncertainty contributors are found and measured. The value of each
contributor is used to calculate the combined uncertainty (Uc). GUM defines
20 3 Microwave Measurement Systems

combined uncertainty as “standard uncertainty of the result of a measurement when

that result is obtained from the values of a number of other quantities, equal to the
positive square root of a sum of terms, the terms being the variances or co-variances
of these other quantities weighted according to how the measurement result varies
with changes in these quantities.” The combined uncertainty (UC) can be defined as
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
UC ¼ UA2 þ UB1 2 þ    þ U2 ;
Bn ð3:5Þ

where UA is the Type-A and UB1…UBn are the Type-B uncertainty contributors [4].
And the expanded uncertainty (U), defined as a “quantity defining an interval about
the result of a measurement that may be expected to encompass a large fraction of
the distribution of values that could reasonably be attributed to the measurand”, is
given by equation

U ¼ k  UC : [ ð3:6Þ

k is calculated from student’s t-distribution. The value of k unambiguously states

the level of confidence associated with the uncertainty interval. For example, k  2
has been used that produces an interval having a level of confidence of approxi-
mately 95%. Hence, if measured attenuation is 9.995 ± 0.010 dB at confidence
level of 95%, then we are 95% sure that attenuation value is between 9.985 and
10.005 dB.

3.3.1 Uncertainty in Power Ratio Technique

Apart from these errors, the error in the power ratio technique includes the power
sensor linearity. The Power Ratio Technique is simple and easy to configure, but it
has some limitations, such as amplitude drift, which is directly proportional to the
signal generator output amplitude drift, zero carry over, and power linearity of the
power sensor. The power sensor linearity is a key source of error in power ratio
technique as per mismatch uncertainty is concerned. Diode power sensors,
described by Cherry et al. [6], may be modeled by the following equation:

Pin ¼ xVdc expðyVdc Þ; ð3:7Þ

where Pin is the incident power, Vdc is the rectified DC voltage, and x and y are the
constants which are functions of parameters such as temperature, ideality factor, and
video impedance. However, power sensor linearity can be improved as given in [7].
3.3 Uncertainty Evaluation in Attenuation Measurement 21

3.3.2 Uncertainty in IF Substitution Technique

The mixer nonlinearity is the main uncertainty contributor in IF substitution tech-

nique [8]. It is worth noting that the IF substitution technique uses two RF sources
and its counterpart, the power ratio technique, uses a single source. The power ratio
technique hence has lower error due to frequency and power instability. In addition,
the errors introduced due to mismatch of the DUT and attenuation standard remains
same for both the techniques. Mismatch can be simply defined as the difference
between the insertion loss and attenuation. For our particular work, the attenuator is
a variable attenuator and its mismatch error is calculated by the formula [8]

M ðdBÞ ¼ 20 log10 ½1  CG ðCI1  CI2 Þ  CD ðCO1  CO2 Þ

 i ð3:8Þ
þ CG CD 10A1=10  10A2=10

where CG, CD are the reflection coefficient of the source and the detector, CI1, CI2
are the input reflection coefficient of the DUT for two settings of attenuation, CO1,
CO2 are the output reflection coefficient for two settings of attenuation and A1, A2
are the attenuation values of the DUT in the two settings.

3.3.3 Comparison of Measurement Results

After the attenuation measurement and uncertainty evaluation in manual and

automated experiments, our aim is to compare the results. In order to compare the
quality of automated measurement against the manual measurement, the conven-
tional approach taken during the inter-laboratory key comparisons can be used.
Hence, if the uncertainty is estimated for both the techniques, then the quality of
automated measurement can be judged against the manual measurement using
investigation on normalized error, En. The En-ratio is given by

Lab  Ref
En ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2 þ U2
; ð3:9Þ
ULab Ref

where Lab is the measurement value, Ref is the reference value, ULab is the
uncertainty reported by the technique, and URef is the total uncertainty of the
reference value (including any allowance for drift or instability of the DUT). The
values of |En| > 1 require investigation. Where laboratories make a number of
similar measurements the method of analysis can be refined by comparing the
distribution of the values of En with a normal distribution [9].
22 3 Microwave Measurement Systems

3.4 Summary

The chapter discusses the important microwave measurements and its uncertainty
evaluation. The major parameters such as attenuation, microwave power, and
scattering parameters are introduced and its metrological aspects are discussed.
A generalized method in metrology of such parameters is depicted in Fig. 3.11.

Fig. 3.11 Generalized

method for microwave
measurement
3.5 Precap 23

Fig. 3.12 Custom designed LabVIEW application for attenuation measurement using power ratio
or IF substitution technique

3.5 Precap

On understanding the above-mentioned measurement techniques, we can now

classify the instruments into categories of their operation. To develop the software
solution for the measurement systems, we now have the basic understanding of
LabVIEW programming given in Chap. 2. This chapter discussed the main con-
sideration for microwave measurements and created understanding of the flow of
control to be simulated in the software. Chapter 4 ahead will discuss the software
development techniques required for building your own software solution for
microwave measurement systems. Figure 3.12 shows the graphical user interface of
the software that can be developed by the reader for various measurement methods
as the outcome of understanding of this book.
24 3 Microwave Measurement Systems

References

1. N.B. Carvalho, D. Schreurs, Microwave and Wireless Measurement Techniques (Cambridge

University Press, New York, 2013). ISBN: 1107004616
2. L.J. Fernández, R.J. Wiegerink, J. Flokstra, J. Sesé, H.V. Jansen, M. Elwenspoek, A capacitive
RF power sensor based on MEMS technology. J. Micromech. Microeng. 16(7), 1099–1107
(2006)
3. R.A. Witte, Spectrum and Network Measurements, 2nd edn. (SciTech Publishing, New Jersey,
2014). ISBN: 9781613530368
4. Evaluation of measurement data—guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement.
JCGM 100:2008, BIPM 2008
5. V.N. Ojha, Evaluation and expression of uncertainty in measurement. MAPAN J. Metrol. Soc.
India 13, 71–84 (1998)
6. P. Cherry, W. Oram, G. Hjipieris, A dynamic calibrator for detector nonlinearity character-
ization. Microw. Eng. Europe (1995)
7. K. Holland, J. Howes, Improvements to the microwave mixer and power sensor linearity
measurement capability at the national physical laboratory. IEE Proc. Sci. Measur. Technol.
149(6), 329–332 (2002)
8. R. Collier, D. Skinner, Microwave Measurements, 3rd edn. (The Institution of Engineering and
Technology, London, 2007)
9. Calibration interlaboratory comparisons. APLAC. 5, 1–23
Chapter 4
Software Development

Software for metrology is required for the reliable, fast, and improved test and
measurement results. Software development for metrology needs details about the
standards and the measurement process. Chapter 3 has detailed the major mea-
surements in microwave engineering. Now that the reader has the detailed infor-
mation about the measurements in microwave, let us implement the measurement
system using LabVIEW for attenuation measurement as a hands-on exercise.
A step-by-step approach detailed in this chapter for implementation of attenuation
measurement system. However, the understanding gained from this chapter can be
used for any other measurement that uses GPIB devices, mainly the source, DUT,
and the receiver.

4.1 LabVIEW-Based Automatic Measurement System

A software unit is developed on LabVIEW platform and is used for attenuation

measurement techniques in order to acquire measurement data, evaluate uncer-
tainty, and performing other statistical analyses required before reporting the
measurement results. The application is validated in order to improve and maintain
the quality of metrological performance. The crucial guidelines and considerations
for validating the software performance are widely discussed in the standard doc-
uments. The major guidelines of ISO/IEC: 17025 [1] are followed during the design
and implementation of the software. ISO/IEC: 17025 emphasizes on the validation
of the user-developed software, when used for the acquisition, processing, storage
or retrieval of test, or calibration data. The performance of software thus is eval-
uated by comparing the manual results with the automated ones along with the
considerations that were made during the design process.
The LabVIEW application is created using simple message-based programming
where the GPIB address uniquely identifies the instrument, and GPIB Read/Write
functions are used to communicate with the instrument. The front panel provides
© The Author(s) 2018 25
S. Dubey et al., LabVIEW Based Automation Guide for Microwave Measurements,
SpringerBriefs in Computational Electromagnetics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6280-3_4
26 4 Software Development

the basic features required to initiate the measurement experiment, specifically

communicating with the connected instruments to set them as per the system set-
tings given by the user.

4.1.1 Software Requirement Specifications

The software requirement specification (SRS) provides the description of the

requirements to be fulfilled by the proposed software [2]. The requirements spec-
ified in the SRS document covers the functional as well as nonfunctional require-
ments. The SRS clearly defines the software functionality, Software–Hardware
interfaces, user interface, system risk assessment and validity, performance criteria,
and implementation issues. The basic functions of metrology software are con-
trolling, monitoring, displaying, and reporting the results of the measurement
process.
For example, Fig. 4.1 shows an example of software requirements for attenua-
tion measurement software. Once the software requirements are known, the design
and implementation of the software should be started fulfilling the requirements of
the customer/end user.

4.1.2 Design of Graphical User Interface (GUI)

A graphical user interface (GUI) uses visual elements that provide the display for
user input and output to and fro from the computer and human in an

Fig. 4.1 An example of software requirement specification of attenuation measurement software

4.1 LabVIEW-Based Automatic Measurement System 27

Fig. 4.2 Example GUI of the developed automated calibration software

easy-to-understand manner. Figure 4.2 shows the developed GUI for attenuation
measurement. The controls and indicators on the front panel are labeled.
The following are major elements of the GUI:
1. User input file: When the application is run, it prompts for the file path, nec-
essarily an excel sheet, in which the desired settings for measurement are
recorded by the user.
2. Transmitter: The select source control on the front panel can be used to detect
the GPIB source connected with the controller. One can provide the model of
the source in the drop down list.
3. Receiver: The select receiver control on the front panel can be used to detect the
GPIB enabled microwave receiver such as power meter or spectrum analyzer
connected with the controller. One can provide the model of the receiver in the
drop down list.
4. Measurement Technique: Based on the measurement technique, different data
flow will be required.
5. Settings fetched from user input file: The measurement settings saved by the
user in the MS Excel sheet can be fetched and shown in the table for real-time
monitoring.
6. Number of observations: Once the user input is known, the time delay between
the observations, number of observation set, total number of readings, etc., can
be asked by the user under measurement settings.
7. Measured results: The receiver’s readings against the user-defined settings can
be seen on the GUI in the real time. This provision helps in the user to monitor
the real-time readings.
8. Start button: A button to start the execution can be provided for the user to start
the measurement process.
28 4 Software Development

9. Execution timeline: The expected time to complete and elapsed time can be a
good indicator for the ease of the user.

4.1.3 Configuring Transmitter, DUT, and Receiver

In a microwave measurement, as discussed in Chap. 3, the transmitter, DUT, and

receiver are to be controlled. For example, attenuation calibration software will
require controlling the instruments given in Table 4.1. It is to be noted that the
instrument-specific instructions can be found in the instrument user guides and
manuals [3–5]. These instructions can be sent and received to and fro from the
device using GPIB functions.
For example, see Fig. 4.3a, b to understand that GPIB write and read operations.
In Fig. 4.3a, SCPI command is sent to the signal generator for turning on the RF
source. In Fig. 4.3b, these functions are used to execute the query to measure
attenuation read by the GPIB device, in this case Tegam’s VM-7, according to the
time delay defined by the user on the front panel.

4.1.4 System Architecture

The conceptual model for the automated microwave measurement system is shown
in Fig. 4.4. The end user will communicate with the controller through the GUI or
the VI front panel. The controls and indicators on the front panel are provided in
such a manner that the security and reliability of the software cannot be at risk by
the user. As per the SRS given above, the controller communicates over the GPIB
which was discussed in Chap. 2. The source code of the LabVIEW application lies
in the block diagram and is secured for better reliability.
System Hardware: The hardware of the automated system consists of
• IEEE-488.2 General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB) kit,
• a microwave signal generator,

Table 4.1 Configuring instruments

Instrument Model Basic operations Instructions/Queries
Source R&S synthesized RF on/off OUTP:STAT ON
signal generator Set frequency (e.g., to 2.45 GHz) FREquation 2.45 GHz
SMR40
Set power level (e.g., to -10dBm POW-10 dBm
power level)
DUT Agilent Setting the attenuation value on e.g., 1 dB = A1B234
Programmable the step attenuator using switch
Attenuator 8494H controller
Receiver Tegam’s VM-7 Enquiring the attenuation level ATTN?
read by the receiver
4.1 LabVIEW-Based Automatic Measurement System 29

Fig. 4.3 Example of block diagram code for a turning on the source and b reading attenuation
from Tegam’s VM-7 (GPIB address: 6)

Fig. 4.4 A model of automated measurement system based on virtual instrumentation

30 4 Software Development

• a programmable attenuator/switch driver,

• a step attenuator,
• a power sensor,
• a power meter,
• personal computer with NI LabVIEW software installed.
The instruments intended for control uses the star configuration in which the
GPIB board connects with the Personal Computer (PC) via GPIB-to-USB adapter,
the signal generator is connected to the GPIB board, and GPIB cable is then
connected from the signal generator to the power meter (or VM-7 in case of IF
substitution technique) and the attenuator driver. The flow of the GPIB Read and
Write commands is schematically shown in Fig. 4.5.

4.1.5 System Implementation

The LabVIEW application is created using simple message-based programming

where the GPIB address uniquely identifies the instrument and GPIB Read/Write
functions are used to communicate with the instrument. The virtual instrumentation
application has the front panel that works as a graphical user interface (GUI) and a
block diagram at the back end.
The front panel provides the basic features required to initiate the measurement
experiment, specifically communicating with the connected instruments to set them
as per the system settings given by the user. When the application is run, it prompts
for the file path, necessarily an excel sheet, in which the desired settings for
measurement are recorded by the user as shown in Fig. 4.6.

Fig. 4.5 Flow of GPIB

functions in power ratio
technique
4.1 LabVIEW-Based Automatic Measurement System 31

Fig. 4.6 Simple measurement settings file to be given by the user using MS Excel

Table 4.2 Main LabVIEW Functions used in given example

Palette Sub-Palette Function Used for
Instrument GPIB GPIB read and Instrument control: GPIB Read and Write
I/O write is used for reading instrument result
(output) buffer and sending query to the
instrument, respectively
Programming Structures For loop and while Iteration/repetition
loop
Dialog and File and message User-friendly GUI
user dialog
interface
Timing Elapsed time Progress bar
Array Array size, index Data management
array, insert into
array, etc.

The main functions that can be used in LabVIEW application for instrument
control are given in Table 4.2. These functions are of great importance to develop a
user-friendly software. One can realize that these functions can ease the program-
mer from getting into too much of programming details. For example, the execution
timeline on the front panel can be implemented easily as shown in Fig. 4.7.
32 4 Software Development

Fig. 4.7 VI for execution timeline

4.1.6 System Features and Drivers

Some features that add to the functionalities of the application are that the it is
capable of dealing with fully programmable attenuators as well as the manual
attenuators; application gives the real-time readings on the front panel as well as
provides a complete observation sheet at the end of the experiment and time delay
between consecutive readings can be set. Therefore, the application gives a stan-
dalone platform to deal with a number of instruments on a single screen with
customizable settings and less manual intervention. The front panel of the
LabVIEW application is shown in Fig. 4.2.

Solution Flexibility and Ease Compared to Previous Solutions

The developed application is compared with two previously used technologies
for automation
(a) Agilent VEE Pro—It was found that LabVIEW development of software is
easier and required lesser development time. Though VEE Pro is also a
graphical language, but ease with the LabVIEW is better.
(b) SureCal Calibration Software—Developed LabVIEW application solved the
problem of customized time interval between the readings.
4.2 Software Validation and Testing 33

4.2 Software Validation and Testing

There are a number of toolkits provided by NI LabVIEW for implementing auto-

mated software engineering phases. For refactoring our application to have a
cleaner graphical code, the main toolkits we used upon the code are Unit Test
Framework and VI Analyzer. These toolkits automate the validation phase of the
software engineering model. The software application can be put under the unit
testing with the LabVIEW Unit Test Framework toolkit in which test cases are run.
Similarly, VI Analyzer is used for code review.
The use of software in metrology is required to be validated and assured for
accurate and precise results [6, 7]. As specified in the standards such as ISO/IEC:
17025, the software is well documented, checks the operating conditions of the
automated instruments before every execution and stores the measurement data
securely to maintain the integrity of the calibration results.
Software integrity levels are defined regarding the complexity of the techniques
to be used to validate the software. The following tests were performed on the
software to validate the system:
(a) Code review
(b) Component Testing
(c) Regression Testing.
Hence, the software is validated up to the third level of software integrity. The
software evaluates the uncertainty in the measurement as per the GUM document
[8]. The validation is not only performed on the data acquisition module, but also
for uncertainty calculation. The software’s performance was found to be at par
when evaluated on the guidelines available in the literature [1, 9–12].

References

1. P. Cherry, W. Oram, G. Hjipieris, A dynamic calibrator for detector nonlinearity

characterization. Microw. Eng. Europe (1995)
2. K. Holland, J. Howes, Improvements to the microwave mixer and power sensor linearity
measurement capability at the national physical laboratory. IEE Proc. Sci. Measur. Technol.
149(6), 329–332 (2002)
3. R. Collier, D. Skinner, Microwave Measurements, 3rd edn. (The Institution of Engineering
and Technology, London, 2007)
4. Calibration Interlaboratory Comparisons. APLAC 5, 1–23 (2008)
5. ISO, BSEN. IEC 17025: 2005 General requirements for the competence of testing and
calibration laboratories (2005)
6. ISO/IEC/IEEE International Standard—Systems and software engineering—Life cycle pro-
cesses—Requirements engineering (2011), pp. 1–94. doi:10.1109/IEEESTD.2011.6146379
7. Operating Manual 1104.3430.12-01 Microwave Signal Generator. Rohde & Schwarz (1999)
8. H. Goldberg, What is virtual instrumentation? IEEE Instrum. Meas. Mag. 3(4), 10–13 (2000)
9. .Operating and Service Manual HP438A Power Meter. Hewlett Packard (1986)
34 4 Software Development

10. Agilent Technologies 11713A Attenuator/Switch Driver Operating and Service Manual.
Agilent Technologies Inc. (2001)
11. T. Tasić, U. Grottker, An overview of guidance documents for software in metrological
applications. Comput. Stand. Interfaces 28(3), 256–269 (2006)
12. V. Batagelj, J. Bojkovski, J. Drnovšek, Software integration in national
measurement-standards laboratories. IET Sci. Meas. Technol. 2(2), 100–106 (2008)
Chapter 5
Measurement Results

Metrology is the science of measurement and its application. It may include both
experimental and theoretical determinations in any field of science and technology.
Broadly, the metrology is categorized into scientific, legal, or industrial metrology
depending upon the type of application and level of accuracy and precision of the
carried out measurement. In Chap. 3, details of some of the common microwave
measurement were given, out of which automation of test measurement of atten-
uation is explained in Chap. 4. The proposed LabVIEW application can measure
the attenuation of the DUT. The expression of the measurement results along with
the evaluated uncertainty is explained in this chapter.

5.1 Data Analysis

The measured data, for example, the attenuation measured using power ratio of IF
substitution technique can be analyzed using LabVIEW. The Mathematics palette
of LabVIEW has various probabilistic and statistical functions that can be used for
analyzing the measurement results. Figure 5.1 shows the complete idea behind the
automated test setup of attenuation measurement. Once the measurement results are
fetched and shown on the LabVIEW front panel using GPIB read function, the
measured results can be analyzed, and uncertainty in the measurement can be
evaluated. In the subsequent section, an example for uncertainty calculation using
Mathematics functions is shown for better understanding.

© The Author(s) 2018 35

S. Dubey et al., LabVIEW Based Automation Guide for Microwave Measurements,
SpringerBriefs in Computational Electromagnetics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6280-3_5
36 5 Measurement Results

Fig. 5.1 Basic architecture for automated attenuation measurement setup

5.2 Uncertainty Evaluation

The key sources of uncertainties are identified and listed along with their proba-
bility distributions and limits, at the highest attenuation levels that can be measured,
by power ratio technique and IF substitution technique in Tables 5.1 and 5.2,
respectively.
Table 5.3 compares the results of manual and automated power ratio technique.
It is interesting to note that, the manual and automated measurement shows a
difference greater than their expanded uncertainties at 10 GHz for 10 dB attenua-
tion. This is because the nonlinearity of the power sensor increases with the
increasing frequency and attenuation values. Hence, for manual measurement, we
use microwave tuners to obtain better matching condition, and in the case of
automated measurement, fixed attenuators of 3 and 6 dB have been used as
matching pads. Thus, at higher frequencies and higher attenuation levels, the dif-
ference between the automated and manual setup readings can be large but can be
reduced by using automated microwave tuners (Fig. 5.2).
5.2 Uncertainty Evaluation 37

Table 5.1 Sources of uncertainty in power ratio technique up to 30 dB

Source of uncertainty Limits (±dB) Probability distribution
Power sensor linearity, UB1 0.01 Rectangular
Meter resolution, UB2 0.01 Rectangular
Mismatch uncertainty, UB3 0.002 U-shaped
Repeatability, UA 0.0045 Normal

Table 5.2 Sources of uncertainty in IF substitution technique up to 60 dB

Sources of uncertainty Limits (±dB) Probability distribution Sensitivity coefficient
Repeatability, UA 0.00837 Normal 1.0
Standard attenuator, UB1 0.04 Normal 1.0
Meter resolution, UB2 0.005 Rectangular 1.0
Mismatch uncertainty, UB3 0.00682 U-shaped 1.0
Mixer nonlinearity, UB4 0.0602 Rectangular 1.0
Isolation, UB5 0.0282 Rectangular 1.0

Table 5.3 compares the results of manual (a) and automated power ratio (b) and
30MHz IF substitution (c) technique. From figures is quite evident that the two
measurement techniques differ in the measurand value. It is to be noted that the two
techniques are traceable to the two different reference standards, i.e., the thermistor
mount and the WBCO attenuator. So, if the results of the two techniques differ with
large values, then the evaluation of normalized error with respect to the reference
values becomes inevitable.
Hence, for the validation of measurement techniques, the En ratio is evaluated by
the LabVIEW application and found to be |En| < 1. Especially at frequency
10 GHz, attenuation measurement technique shows a difference greater than their
expanded uncertainty at 5 dB and 10 dB. In both cases |En| > 1, hence their ref-
erence standard values have been considered to evaluate |En|. The front panel of the
LabVIEW application will inform the user about En ratio acceptance with green and
rejection with red. If there is a red indication, then a new dialog box will be
executed and will ask for reference standard values in the form of MS Excel or
comma separated values (CSV) file. The application will compute the En ratio
between the measured values and the reference standard values. Hence, if finally |
En| < 1 with respect to the reference, then the LED turns to green else a red
indication will show that the measurement results are not valid, as illustrated in
Fig. 5.3. Therefore, it is concluded that the quality of the measured results is not
affected by the automation. Similarly, the values of the measurand using power
ratio technique are traceable to the microcalorimeter-based thermistor mount
standard for microwave power and should agree with that reference standard.
 38

Table 5.3 Experimental results and comparisons

Frequency Nominal Manual power ratio Automated power ratio Difference 30 MHz IF substitution Normalized Difference
(GHz) attenuation technique technique (a–b) technique error (En (c–b)
(dB) Measured Expanded Measured Expanded Measured Expanded Ratio)
attenuation uncertainty attenuation uncertainty attenuation uncertainty
(dB) (a) (±) (dB) (b) (±) (dB) (c) (±)
0.03 1 1.007 0.008 1.006 0.007 0.001 1.002 0.011 0.460 −0.004
5 5.030 0.012 5.031 0.010 −0.001 5.020 0.012 0.704 −0.011
10 9.995 0.019 9.993 0.014 0.002 10.01 0.013 0.889 0.017
0.06 1 1.000 0.008 0.999 0.007 0.001 1.002 0.011 0.230 0.003
5 5.009 0.012 5.008 0.010 0.001 5.010 0.015 0.443 0.002
10 9.960 0.015 9.962 0.013 −0.002 9.968 0.016 0.776 0.006
1 1 1.001 0.007 1.001 0.007 0.000 1.012 0.010 0.901 0.011
5 5.012 0.012 5.011 0.009 0.001 5.030 0.014 0.540 0.019
10 9.967 0.015 9.966 0.013 0.001 10.016 0.016 0.970 0.050
2 1 1.001 0.007 1.001 0.007 0.000 1.016 0.012 0.360 0.015
5 5.011 0.011 5.009 0.009 0.002 5.040 0.014 0.540 0.031
10 9.966 0.015 9.964 0.013 0.002 10.024 0.016 0.970 0.060
5 1 1.005 0.007 1.004 0.007 0.001 1.028 0.012 0.288 0.024
5 5.024 0.009 5.026 0.009 −0.002 5.076 0.014 0.601 0.050
10 9.986 0.012 9.991 0.013 −0.005 10.060 0.020 0.377 0.069
10 1 0.945 0.007 0.969 0.007 −0.024 1.002 0.010 0.245 0.033
5 5.044 0.009 5.068 0.010 −0.024 5.012 0.013 0.975 −0.056
10 10.015 0.012 10.091 0.014 −0.076 10.032 0.017 0.862 −0.059
5 Measurement Results
5.3 Comparison of Results with Manual Measurements 39

Fig. 5.2 Example LabVIEW VI block diagram for combined uncertainty evaluation

Fig. 5.3 Validation of results using En-ratio

5.3 Comparison of Results with Manual Measurements

The comparison of measured attenuation is shown in Fig. 5.4a–c. In attenuation

measurement, 1, 5, and 10 dB attenuation steps have been assessed with an
expanded uncertainty of ±0.015 dB. It is a clear observation that for lower levels of
attenuation and lower frequencies, a simple power ratio technique outperforms the
function of a tuned receiver VM-7 and particularly at 60 MHz every technique
40 5 Measurement Results

Fig. 5.4 Comparison of

Results

reads the same attenuation value. The results also show that 30 MHz IF substitution
technique gives an uncertainty of ±0.011 but power ratio technique is competent of
giving a better uncertainty of ±0.007 for lower level of attenuation. However, IF
substitution technique is used for higher level of attenuation measurement as a
tuned receiver has a higher dynamic range.
5.4 Report Generation 41

5.4 Report Generation

The report generation for metrological applications is a serious subject. The

metrology laboratories that issue calibration and test reports to the customers should
report all the details of the test or measurement conducted on the DUT. The fol-
lowing main considerations to be taken while expressing the measurement results:
• Description of the measurement process
• Major uncertainty contributors and their limits
• Statistical analysis of the results.
The previous chapters and sections have explained in detail the measurement
process and uncertainty evaluation. Now if one has to generate the measurement
report using LabVIEW, the NI Report Generation Toolkit can be used for gener-
ating the calibration report directly in a Microsoft Word or Excel file, as shown in
Figs. 5.5 and 5.6. The figures show how the fundamental parameters of the cali-
bration report can be pushed using LabVIEW for automated report generation. In a
similar way, the measurement results acquired by the automated test setup can be
filled up in the report as per the user format.

Fig. 5.5 Example report generation VI

42 5 Measurement Results

Fig. 5.6 Block diagram demonstrating report generation

Chapter 6
Conclusion

Here, LabVIEW programming for instrument control is employed to develop a

software solution for metrological applications. Considering the common micro-
wave measurements, examples are explained for understanding the LabVIEW
programming techniques. The process for uncertainty evaluation is also given in
detail to analyze the measured results. The observations made during the study and
implementation can be summarized as follows:
(i) For instrument control, GPIB devices can be automated easily using
LabVIEW message-based programming
(ii) Complete calibration suite for microwave measurements can possible pro-
vide faster tests with minimum human interference
(iii) Automated uncertainty evaluation can be implemented using LabVIEW
Mathematics functions
(iv) The metrology software should in no case compromise with the integrity of
the measurement results
(v) Automated report generation can be implemented using LabVIEW.
In a typical automated RF calibration process, the operator must frequently
intervene to change test setups, thus limiting the benefits that can be realized by the
automaton. However, the presented system of attenuation measurement is devel-
oped such that it only needs measurement points to be passed by the user just one
time before the execution, thus increasing the calibration system capabilities in
terms of time and efficiency. The measurement results along with the corresponding
uncertainties show the proper implementation and execution of automation. The
metrological software is validated with assured quality by following the guidelines
available in the literature. It was finally found that the quality of the measured
results is not affected by the automation since proper considerations were made
during the design process. The LabVIEW application is also capable for mea-
surement technique validation with the help of normalized error analysis. We hope
this exercise will be useful for implementing automated attenuation measurement
system in the measurement laboratories.
© The Author(s) 2018 43
S. Dubey et al., LabVIEW Based Automation Guide for Microwave Measurements,
SpringerBriefs in Computational Electromagnetics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6280-3_6
About the Book

Modern metrology laboratory looks upon the automated test and measurement
setups for better efficiency and throughput compared to manual procedures. NI
LabVIEW can be used to develop the automated measurement systems using
instrument control and data analysis. This book focuses on the automation of the
microwave measurements. Before the software development for automation,
common microwave measurements are discussed in detail. Some fundamentals
about evaluation of uncertainty in these measurements are also discussed. Generic
software is developed for calibration process of microwave parameters using
message-based GPIB programming of instrument control. Example of attenuation
measurement is demonstrated with highlight on the fundamental techniques
required to understand LabVIEW programming. The reader would get an insight of
software development for metrological applications. The book can be used as a
guide for development of automation not just for attenuation but any of the other
measurement process in readers’ laboratory.

Uncited References

1. B. Wichmann, G. Parkin, R. Barker, Software Support for Metrology Best Practice Guide
No. 1, in Validation of Software in Measurement Systems (National Physical Laboratory,
Teddingtion, 2007)
2. P. Ciarlini, M.G. Cox, F. Pavese, D. Richter, Advanced Mathematical and Computational
Tools in Metrology VI, Volume 66 of Series on Advances in Mathematics for Applied
Sciences (World Scientific, Singapore, 2004). ISBN: 9814482412 2004
3. M.G. Cox, P.M. Harris, I.M. Smith, Software specifications for uncertainty evaluation.
National Physical Laboratory
4. N. Greif, Software testing and preventive quality assurance for metrology. Comput. Stand.
Interfaces 28(3), 286–296 (2006)

© The Author(s) 2018 45

S. Dubey et al., LabVIEW Based Automation Guide for Microwave Measurements,
SpringerBriefs in Computational Electromagnetics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6280-3