St. Neots, UK — Pico Technology, a leader in PC-based test and measurement instruments, announces the PicoVNA-R, a portable vector network analyzer and reflectometer covering 300 kHz to 6 GHz. Addressing the need to characterize antennas, cables, and passive components where they are installed rather than where the instrument happens to sit, the PicoVNA-R measures both magnitude and phase for S11 and S21, with integrated time-domain reflectometry.
At under 100 µs per S11 frequency point, the instrument sweeps 201 points in 20.2 ms. That is fast enough for an engineer to watch a response move while making an adjustment, rather than tuning, sweeping and waiting.
Vector measurement outside the laboratory
A vector network analyzer is typically calibrated before every measurement session to remove the errors in its test setup, and those error terms shift as the temperature changes. In the field the temperature changes constantly, which has traditionally meant either carrying a calibration kit and repeating the process by hand or accepting drift.
The PicoVNA-R answers this with an onboard electronic calibrator. It measures and stores the calibration data from an internal module, then restores that calibration in similar conditions after power-on, recharacterizing the instrument in seconds. Temperature stability is specified at 0.03 dB/°C below 4 GHz and 0.05 dB/°C from 4 GHz to 6 GHz. Field engineers moving between environments benefit most, but so does a laboratory user who wants a usable instrument immediately after switching on.
An IP66-rated case seals out dust and water, the instrument weighs 0.47 kg, and a single USB-C connection carries both power and data. There is no mains supply to manage. All an engineer needs is a laptop or a tablet.
Specifications and features
Key features include:
- 300 kHz to 6 GHz vector measurement: magnitude and phase for S11 and S21 through Type N female test ports, with multiple calibration methods available.
- Fast sweeps: S11 measurement at under 100 µs per point, sweeping 201 points in 20.2 ms, for real-time response while tuning and troubleshooting.
- Low trace noise: down to 0.008 dB RMS typical, resolving small insertion loss changes and passband ripple that a noisier instrument would mask.
- Onboard electronic calibration: recharacterize the instrument in seconds to minimize temperature drift in outdoor environments.
- Time-domain analysis: built-in time-domain reflectometry and transmission (TDR/TDT) to locate and characterize discontinuities along a transmission path, with no hardware module to swap.
- Field-ready construction: IP66-rated case, 187 x 81 x 41 mm, 0.47 kg, powered and controlled over a single USB-C connection.
- Cross-platform software for the life of the instrument: PicoVNA 5 on Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, and Raspberry Pi OS, with every feature included and no license to buy.
- Automation: a standalone API with examples in C, C++ and Python, plus an industry-standard SCPI remote interface.
PicoVNA 5 turns the PicoVNA-R into a working test platform rather than a single-measurement instrument. Independent workspaces each carry their own settings, calibration and data, so an engineer can set up a filter test in one and an antenna measurement in another and move between them without reconfiguring anything. Time domain and frequency domain views of the same measurement sit side by side, so finding a mismatch and locating where it sits on a Smith Chart only takes a couple of clicks. A guided calibration wizard works through the standards in whichever order suits the engineer, with a live view of each standard confirming the right one is connected before it is measured.
Calibration takes minutes with the Pico USB-controlled E-Cal module, characterized against traceable standards and specified up to 8.5 GHz, well beyond the instrument’s 6 GHz range. Where a quality system requires traceable known standards, Pico’s manual SOLT kits cover the same range, each supplied with calibration data tied to its serial number.
“A vector network analyzer has always been an instrument you bring the work to. The PicoVNA-R turns this around. It is small enough and rugged enough to take to the antenna or the cable run, and the onboard calibrator means that your measurements stay reliable even as the temperature changes around you,” said James Mackey, Senior Product Marketing Executive at Pico Technology.
