xaVNA – A low cost two port Vector Network Analyzer

xaVNA is a simple and cheap vector network analyzer that allows you to easily tune up antennas, filters, and amplifiers by plugin it to USB. It is able to display smith charts/graphs on the including PC software.

The main board connects to a PC through usb and communicates via a virtual serial port device; the PC software sets the frequency and other parameters by sending two-byte register write commands, and the device sends averaged vector values representing magnitude and phase of measured wave.

The project is open source and available on github and a kickstarter campaign is live with 31 days to go.

Specifications

• Frequency range: guaranteed 137MHz – 2500MHz, typical 135MHz – 3500MHz
• Measurement signal level (controlled using on-board switches, iteration 1 board only): -5dBm to 10dBm, with 2dB increments
• Measurement signal level (controlled using spi interface): -20dBm to 10dBm, with 1dB increments
• 3 receivers: forward coupled, reverse coupled, through; can measure S11 and S21 of a two port device. To measure S22 and S12 the DUT needs to be manually reversed.

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