On-wafer measurements of noise temperature

The NIST Noise Project has developed the theoretical formalism and experimental methods for performing accurate noise-temperature measurements on a wafer. This report summarizes the theoretical formulation and describes the design, methods, and results of tests performed to verify our ability to measure on-wafer noise temperature. Several different configurations with known off-wafer noise sources were used to obtain different, known, on-wafer noise temperatures. These were then measured, and the results were compared to predictions. Good agreement was found, with a worst-case disagreement of 2.6%. An uncertainty analysis of the measurements resulted in an estimated standard uncertainty (1/spl sigma/) of 1.1% or less for most values of noise temperature. The tests also confirm our ability to produce known noise temperatures on a wafer, with an uncertainty of about 1%.

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