Patent ID: 8212628

Claim:
A method for independent frequency impedance synthesis (tuning), using an impedance tuner assembly comprising four wideband single probe impedance tuners, using the test port of the first tuner as overall test port and the idle port of the fourth tuner as overall idle port, said tuners being connected in cascade form, the test port of each said tuner being connected with the idle port of the previous tuner; whereby the tuners of said assembly are calibrated individually on a VNA for several probe positions, selected such as for the reflection factor to cover the whole Smith chart area from reflection factor amplitudes close to 0 and up to 1 and phases between 0 and 360 degrees by measuring the tuner's s-parameters and saving them in calibration data files; said probes of said tuners being able to create high reflection factors over a frequency range between a minimum frequency Fmin and a maximum frequency Fmax, the range between Fmin and Fmax being covered by all cascaded tuners; in case of harmonic frequencies Fmax is at least 4·Fmin and each individual tuner must cover at least this frequency range; in case of non-harmonic frequencies said individual tuners must cover a frequency range between a minimum frequency Fmin=F 1 and a maximum frequency Fmax=F 4 , whereas F 4 is larger than F 1 and intermediate frequencies F 2 and F 3 lie between F 1 and F 4 and at certain distance among each other; the electronic control board of said cascaded tuners are connected such as to allow the same control computer to control independently all stepper motors of all tuners simultaneously.