Patent ID: 7231311

Claim:
A method comprising the steps of: providing a sampling frequency converter; and calculating a first frequency and a second frequency such that a first predetermined integer times said first frequency plus a second predetermined integer times said second frequency is smaller than the output bandwidth of said sampling frequency converter; and calculating a local oscillator frequency that equals plus or minus said first frequency plus a multiple of the sampling frequency of said sampling frequency converter; and calculating an input signal frequency that equals plus or minus said second frequency plus a multiple of the sampling frequency of said sampling frequency converter; and generating a local oscillator signal that contains spectral components having frequencies that are equal to said local oscillator frequency or to a multiple of said local oscillator frequency; and generating an input signal that contains spectral components having frequencies that are equal to said input signal frequency or to a multiple of said input signal frequency; and applying said local oscillator signal to the local oscillator terminal of a high-frequency mixer; and applying said input signal to the input signal terminal of said high-frequency mixer; and sensing the response signals that are generated at the terminals of said high-frequency mixer; and frequency converting said response signals to intermediate frequency signals by sampling said response signals using said sampling frequency converter; and generating digitized values of said intermediate frequency signals; and storing said digitized values in the memory of a computer; whereby said digitized values are used for characterizing the performance of said high-frequency mixer.