Patent ID: 6928373

Claim:
A method for efficiently characterizing an N-port device under test (DUT) using a vector network analyzer (VNA), wherein N is 2 or greater, the method including: (a) dividing the N-port DUT into multiple sub-devices, that each include less than N ports, based on transmission path levels between the N-ports; (b) performing at least an M-port VNA calibration, where M is equal to a number of ports on the one of the multiple sub-devices having the greatest number of ports; and (c) using the VNA to determine S-parameters for each sub-device; wherein step (a) includes (a.1) determining a transmission path level between each pair of the N ports; and (a.2) grouping ports together as being part of a same sub-device or a different sub-device based on relative transmission levels between the pairs of ports.