Measurement and Calibration Approaches for Two-Port Scattering Parameters at mK Temperatures

This paper describes the set-up and characterization approaches to realize cryogenic scattering parameters measurements. The system developed at the Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica (INRiM, Italy), exploits the short-open-load-reciprocal technique, to realize error corrected measurements. The system has been developed in the framework of the EMPIR project 20FUN07 SuperQuant, and it operates at temperatures down to the mK range, in the band 4-12 GHz in coaxial line. Calibration standards are referred to room temperature standards and computer-aided simulations are used to extract their behavior at mK. The first measurements on an actual device (a 20 dB attenuator) are here shown.