VNA mechanical calibration kits
All twenty-one kits: open, short, load and through standards in Type-N and 3.5 mm from 4.5 to 26.5 GHz, plus a WR-42 waveguide kit. Physical standards you connect one at a time — the traditional reference, and the one most quality systems are written around.
What a mechanical kit does
A vector network analyser measures everything between its own receivers and your device — its internal path, the connectors, the cables you fitted, the adaptor you added because the genders did not match. All of it lands in the result, and none of it is what you wanted to measure.
A calibration kit is how you get rid of it. You present four standards whose behaviour is known precisely — an open, a short, a matched load and a through — the analyser measures each one, and from the difference between what it should have seen and what it did see it solves for every error term in the path. The reference plane moves from inside the instrument to the end of your cable.
Which is why the kit is not an accessory in the ordinary sense: it is the reference your measurements are built on, and its quality sets the ceiling on what the analyser can tell you.
Which kit does my analyser need?
Every port below is taken from that instrument’s own datasheet.
| Analyser | Frequency | Test port | Kit |
|---|---|---|---|
| SNA5002A · SNA5004A | 4.5 GHz | Type-N female | F503ME / F503FE |
| SNA5012A · SNA5014A | 9 GHz | Type-N female | F504 or Y504 series |
| SNA5000X-E series | up to 8.5 GHz | Type-N female | F504 or Y504 series |
| SNA5022A · SNA5032A | 13.5 / 26.5 GHz | 3.5 mm NMD male | F606 or Y606 series |
| SNA6000A (3.5 mm models) | up to 26.5 GHz | 3.5 mm NMD male | F606 or Y606 series |
| SVA1000X series VNA | 1.5 / 3.2 / 7.5 GHz | Type-N female | F503/F603 or F504/F604 only |
| SSA3000X-R series VNA + DTF | up to 7.5 GHz | Type-N female | F503/F603 or F504/F604 only |
Buying for an SVA1000X or SSA3000X-R? Only eight of these kits fit
Both are spectrum analysers that also do vector network measurement — the SVA1000X measures S11 and S21, and the SSA3000X-R adds vector network analysis and distance-to-fault as standard. Both need a mechanical kit, and both accept a restricted list:
Those eight carry a blue SVA / SSA-R OK badge below and a tick in the table at the foot of the page. Not the TS kits, the Y series, the 18 GHz or 26.5 GHz kits, or an ECal module. Keysight 85032F, 85032B/E and 85033D/E are also on Siglent’s supported list.
Type-N kits
For the SNA5002A, SNA5012A, SNA5004A, SNA5014A and the SNA5000X-E, and for the Type-N reference plane on an SVA1000X or SSA3000X-R.
DC – 4.5 GHz
DC – 9 GHz
Covers the whole Type-N range. The Y kits hold the same standards in one integrated body.
DC – 18 GHz
The top of what a Type-N interface supports. Note that no Siglent VNA reaches 18 GHz on Type-N — these suit N-terminated work on a higher-frequency instrument.
3.5 mm kits
For the SNA5022A, SNA5032A and the 3.5 mm models of the SNA6000A range. An air-dielectric precision interface — which is why these, and not SMA kits, are what those analysers are specified with.
DC – 4.5 GHz
DC – 9 GHz
DC – 26.5 GHz
The kits for the SNA5032A and the top of the SNA6000A range.
Waveguide
Above roughly 18 GHz a great deal of hardware moves to waveguide, because the loss is far below anything a coaxial line can manage. A coaxial standard cannot calibrate it — the reference plane is a flange rather than a connector.
All twenty-one compared
The tick marks the eight kits an SVA1000X or SSA3000X-R will accept.
| Model | Connector | Gender | Range | Construction | SVA / SSA-R | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F503ME | N-type | male | DC – 4.5 GHz | Discrete | €339 | |
| F503FE | N-type | female | DC – 4.5 GHz | Discrete | €339 | |
| F504MS | N-type | male | DC – 9 GHz | Discrete | €1,269 | |
| F504FS | N-type | female | DC – 9 GHz | Discrete | €1,269 | |
| F504TS | N-type | male + female | DC – 9 GHz | Discrete | — | €1,659 |
| Y504MS | N-type | male | DC – 9 GHz | Integrated | — | €1,870 |
| Y504FS | N-type | female | DC – 9 GHz | Integrated | — | €1,870 |
| F505MS | N-type | male | DC – 18 GHz | Discrete | — | €2,280 |
| F505FS | N-type | female | DC – 18 GHz | Discrete | — | €2,280 |
| F505TS | N-type | male + female | DC – 18 GHz | Discrete | — | €4,020 |
| F603ME | 3.5 mm | male | DC – 4.5 GHz | Discrete | €419 | |
| F603FE | 3.5 mm | female | DC – 4.5 GHz | Discrete | €419 | |
| F604MS | 3.5 mm | male | DC – 9 GHz | Discrete | €1,499 | |
| F604FS | 3.5 mm | female | DC – 9 GHz | Discrete | €1,499 | |
| F604TS | 3.5 mm | male + female | DC – 9 GHz | Discrete | — | €2,529 |
| F606MS | 3.5 mm | male | DC – 26.5 GHz | Discrete | — | €2,380 |
| F606FS | 3.5 mm | female | DC – 26.5 GHz | Discrete | — | €1,980 |
| F606TS | 3.5 mm | male + female | DC – 26.5 GHz | Discrete | — | €3,750 |
| Y606MS | 3.5 mm | male | DC – 26.5 GHz | Integrated | — | €2,780 |
| Y606FS | 3.5 mm | female | DC – 26.5 GHz | Integrated | — | €2,780 |
| KWR42A | Waveguide | WR-42 | 18 – 26.5 GHz | Waveguide | — | €4,950 |
Prices exclude VAT. Connector types and frequency ranges are from Siglent’s ordering information for the SNA5000A, SNA6000A and SNA5000X-E.
Frequently asked questions
What does OSLT mean?
Open, Short, Load and Through — the four known standards the analyser measures so it can work out what your cables and connectors are doing, and subtract them from every sweep afterwards. Every kit on this page provides all four.
F series or Y series?
Electrically there is nothing between them. Siglent’s own wording is that a Y kit “shares the same parts and specs” as the equivalent F kit “but in integrated exterior”. The F kits give you separate pieces; the Y kits hold them in one body, so there is less to fumble or lose part-way through a calibration.
Male, female or both?
The standard has to mate with the interface you are calibrating to, so the kit’s gender is the opposite of your cable end. The TS kits carry both and cover a two-port measurement where the two ends differ — the usual case.
My analyser is an SVA1000X or SSA3000X-R. Which kits work?
Only eight of the twenty-one: F503ME, F503FE, F504MS, F504FS in Type-N and F603ME, F603FE, F604MS, F604FS in 3.5 mm. Not the TS kits, not the Y series, not the 18 GHz or 26.5 GHz kits, and not an ECal module. They are marked in the table above. Keysight 85032F, 85032B/E and 85033D/E are also on Siglent’s supported list.
Can I use an SMA kit on a 3.5 mm port?
They mate mechanically, so it will physically work — but a calibration is only as good as the standards behind it. A 3.5 mm standard is an air-dielectric precision part whose defined characteristics the correction maths relies on; SMA is PTFE-filled to a looser tolerance. If the measurement matters, match the kit to the port.
Would an ECal module be better?
If you calibrate often, very possibly — it is seconds rather than minutes, there is no sequence to get wrong, and it puts one mating cycle on your test port instead of seven. It also costs six to ten times as much. The full comparison is on the overview page.
Tell us your analyser and we will name the kit
Three things decide it — your test-port connector, your top frequency, and the gender of the cables you calibrate to. Send us the model and we will confirm which of these twenty-one fits.
Calibrating several times a day? An ECal module may cost less in the long run than a mechanical kit does in time and connector wear.