Traceable Characterization of Broadband Pulse Waveforms Suitable for Cryogenic Josephson Voltage Applications

We characterize broadband pulse waveforms using a large signal network analyzer (LSNA) and a sampling oscilloscope, both calibrated to the same reference plane and traceable to the NIST Electro-Optic Sampling System (EOS). The waveforms under test are passed through the LSNA test set and fed into the oscilloscope, allowing measurements to be carried out without disconnecting the measurement instruments, which reduces the measurement uncertainty. We calibrate the LSNA for operation with an external broadband pulse source and we correct the oscilloscope measurements for time-base distortion, impedance mismatch and the complex frequency response of the oscilloscope’s sampler. We characterize several pulse waveforms and show good agreement between the LSNA and the oscilloscope measurements. The techniques presented will be applied in the characterization of cryogenic waveforms generated by NIST Josephson arbitrary waveform synthesizer (JAWS) systems.