PA Characterization Bench
A PA characterization bench is used to measure how an RF power amplifier behaves under defined electrical, load and thermal conditions. The bench places the amplifier under test between controlled RF drive, calibrated measurement paths, suitable loads and bias or supply hardware.
Measurement path
Typical setups include RF sources, power meters or sensors, directional couplers, attenuators, loads, fixtures, VSWR or reflected-power monitoring, bias supplies, thermal hardware and data capture. The arrangement should keep the drive path, output path and monitoring path clear so results can be compared across models, revisions and operating points.
Data to confirm
Useful data includes test frequency, drive level, output power, gain, compression behavior, harmonic limits, load condition, supply current, heat-sink state, calibration reference and protection response.
