Auto-Scaling System for Electrical Tuned Attenuator Based on GPIB

In this paper, hardware composition and software design of auto-scaling system for electrical tuned attenuator based on GPIB is proposed. The proposed system is mainly composed of personal computer, USB-GPIB interface card, phasor network analyzer, data acquisition card and electrical tuned attenuator. System software is developed in graphical programming language LabVIEW. It can realize the insertion loss measurement and scaling of electrical tuned attenuator in the frequency range from 0 to 20GHz.The system can greatly reduce the time of scaling. Comparing with the conventional scaling system, this system is advantageous in reducing the time for taking measurement and in simplifying the method of scaling and testing.