Patent ID: 7848911

Claim:
A method of determining a measurement uncertainty of a selected parameter of a device under test (DUT) when measured by a test system, the combination of said test system and said DUT comprising a plurality of components, each component being characterized by one of a corresponding plurality of values, each value varying in accordance with one of a corresponding plurality of expected probability distributions, said method comprising: providing a test system model for the combination of said test system and said DUT, said model having a plurality of model elements that affect said measurement uncertainty, each model element representing one of said plurality of components and being characterized by a corresponding one of said plurality of values; entering the test system model into a simulator; running a sufficient number of iterations of the test system model on the simulator while randomly varying each of a first portion of the plurality of values within said corresponding probability distributions to produce a statistically significant number of results of the selected parameter; and evaluating the results to determine the measurement uncertainty of the selected parameter of said DUT; wherein the test system model includes a test fixture comprising a plurality of switches and a plurality of cables.