From: johanna_larmour@agilent.com
To: cfurse@ece.utah.edu
Subject: RE: FW: Cables and Cal Kit for 8753C
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2003 10:06:54 -0700
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Dear Cynthia,

I am sorry that I did not address this issue in my earlier email.

SMA connectors have a solid plastic dielectric that seperates the center and outer conductors. SMA connectors are non-precision, low-cost 3.5mm connectors. These connectors do not work well in applications that require repeated connections; they wear out quickly. They work best as one-time-only connectors, or in applications that require very few connections. Most SMA connectors have higher reflection coefficients than other connectors available for use to 24GHz, because of the difficulty to anchor the dielectric support.

3.5mm connectors were primarily developed by Hewlett Packard. The design strategy focused on higly rugged physical interfaces that would mate with popular SMA dimensions, allowing thousands of repeatable connections.

So the answer to your question is that the 3.5mm connector was to designed to be connected to SMA's and will stand up to repeated connections much better than an SMA cable would. Also, 3.5mm connectors are much more suitable for use as high performance calibration standards. In general, Agilent recommends the use of 3.5mm accessories for the test of SMA devices.

Please let me know if this does not answer your question.

With best regards,

Johanna