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A project log for DIY 1.3 GHz FET Probe

An active scope probe with high-ish bandwidth and very low input capacitance

christophChristoph 04/18/2022 at 22:221 Comment

Wolfgang designed his PCB in PCBExpress (I think), so I recreated his layout in KiCad. This was the result:

This was pretty small already, but was quite inconvenient for a couple of reasons:

I sent it to Wolfgang anyway, and it performed well. The next step was to improve the design a bit towards a tool that can be handled well, and that can be solderen into a circuit (for when lead inductance really counts). The SMA was swapped for a u.Fl, and so was the power supply input. Adding an RF shield wasn't so easy because the common, small, off-the-shelf parts all have four walls. I picked a small one that looked easy to modify, and came up with this:

This is the probe characterized on Wolfgang's page:

https://electronicprojectsforfun.wordpress.com/solder-in-probes/

Next log will be about assembly and will also contain a link to a repo with layout files and all that.

Discussions

indigoredster wrote 04/19/2022 at 00:06 point

Nice!!!!!!

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