Patent ID: 7652484

Claim:
A method of calibrating an instrument, the method comprising: for an instrument having N ports, where N>=2, characterizing cables having a first type including, connecting a first cable between two of the N ports, performing an “unknown-thru” full two-port calibration between the two ports, obtaining a S-parameter of the first cable, saving the S-parameter of the first cable in an internal dedicated user memory, and repeating connecting, performing, obtaining and saving for additional cables having the first type; disconnecting the cables having the first type from one of the two ports and transferring a measurement plane from the connected end of the cable to the disconnected end of the cable; and characterizing cables having a second type including, connecting a second cable between the second of the two ports and the disconnected end of the first cable, measuring a S-parameter of the second cable, and saving the S-parameter of the second cable in the internal dedicated user memory.