OSP Connector Calibration Kit Study

Resulting from a lack of strict adherence to IEEE287 General Precision/Laboratory Precision Connector specifi cations (GPC / LPC), the OSP connector type is not generally considered to be suitable for calibration kit use. Although this is the dominant opinion among microwave connector and metrology experts, data that neither disputes nor confi rms this assertion is readily available; therefore, the purpose of this study is to answer the following questions:

(1) Do corrected measurements of an OSP terminated DUT, made with an OSP calibration kit, produce less repeatable results as compared to the measurements of the same DUT type using 3.5-mm-to-OSP adapters and a 3.5-mm calibration kit? How does measurement repeatability behave over multiple calibrations with respect to these two calibration scenarios?

(2) When using an OSP calibration kit to effect corrected measurements of an OSP terminated DUT; do the resulting measurements reveal a properly corrected DUT-to-test system interface (assuming DUT connectors are “standard” OSP connectors)? In short, how does the corrected reference plane area appear in the time domain?