A New Self-Calibration Method of an LCR Meter for RF Resistance Calibration Using Capacitance Standards

This paper describes how to calibrate a four-terminal-pair (4TP) LCR meter at the right (90 degrees) angle. The LCR meter uses the right angle signal to process a synchronous detector as a vector signal receiver. The right-angle calibration method uses, at a minimum, one variable-phase signal generator (SG) and a phase shift circuit. The SG does not require a precision right angle, but it does need good phase stability. The described phase shifter provides the required differential phase of nearly the right angle. As a result, the right-angle phase deviation of the LCR meter is better than 65 mu rad (0.223') with 37-mu rad (0.127') uncertainty at 10 MHz. This method is also applicable to the phase calibration of a vector network analyzer.