An Experimental Procedure for Assessing EVM Performance of VNA-Based Measurement Systems

The accuracy of Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) measured at component level using a vector network analyzer (VNA) mainly depends on the dynamic range available for acquiring the relevant incident and reflected modulated waves. In this work, we propose a new experimental procedure for reproducing the same power levels that would be generated by the device-under-test (DUT), but without introducing the DUT's nonlinearity. This approach allows for accurately establishing the EVM profile measurable by a given VNA-based measurement system, thereby enabling the optimization of the available dynamic range for a given target DUT. The approach has been experimentally validated by measuring two nonlinear DUTs across two configurations of a V NA-based measurement system.