Harmonics Measurements    Related Topics

In the Harmonic Distortion menu you can measure arbitrary harmonics or ratios between harmonics and the fundamental wave (harmonic distortion factor).

Measuring harmonics

Measuring harmonic distortion factors


To measure a harmonic of arbitrary order n...

  1. Reset the analyzer to ensure that the following operating mode is set: Sweep Type: Lin. Frequency, Trace - Meas.: S21, Trace - Format: dB Mag.

  2. Open the Channel - Stimulus menu and reduce the Stop frequency to the maximum frequency of your analyzer divided by n where n is the order of the harmonic you want to measure.

  3. Click Channel - Mode - Harmonics - More Harmonics. In the dialog opened select the Harmonic Order you want to measure.

  4. Adjust the Source port and the receive port (Harmonics Measured at) to your test setup (for a DUT connected between port 1 and 2 of the analyzer you can keep the default settings).

  5. Close the More Harmonics dialog to enable the harmonics measurement and observe the changed default trace Trc1.

The trace shows the nth harmonic as a wave quantity b2. The measured quantity is changed automatically when the harmonics measurement is enabled.

Use 2nd Harmonic Port1 to Port2 and 3rd Harmonic Port1 to Port2 to activate the measurement of the second and third harmonics with a single menu command.


To obtain a harmonic distortion factor...

  1. Reset the analyzer to ensure that the following operating mode is set: Sweep Type: Lin. Frequency, Trace - Meas.: S21, Trace - Format: dB Mag.

  2. Open the Channel - Stimulus menu and reduce the Stop frequency to the maximum frequency of your analyzer divided by n where n is the order of the harmonic distortion factor you want to measure.

  3. Click Channel - Mode - Harmonics - More Harmonics. In the dialog opened select the Harmonic Order you want to measure.

  4. Adjust the Source port and the receive port (Harmonics Measured at) to your test setup (for a DUT connected between port 1 and 2 of the analyzer you can keep the default settings).

  5. Close the More Harmonics dialog to enable the harmonics measurement.

  6. Click Relative Measurement and observe the new mathematical trace Trc2.

The trace belongs to a new channel Ch2 and shows the nth harmonic distortion factor as a wave quantity b2. With the default trace format the result is displayed in dB units.