Anyone have feedback the Minicircuits eVNA-63+ 6 GHz VNA?

[JohnG]

I have been on the lookout for a moderate cost VNA for my company. I recently came across one from Minicircuits, and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with it?

https://www.minicircuits.com/WebStore/Vector-Network_Analyzer.html

It is in line with small VNAs like those produced by Tek, Pico, etc. I don't need top of the line, but the NanoVNA is just not cutting it (amazing price/performance, but I need more performance). Mainly I need more dynamic range and a bit better frequency response, but also it gets old dealing with flaky and non-standard communication protocols.

Any comments or info are appreciated.

Thanks,
John

[profanum429]

I haven't used the Minicircuits one but that software looks like a carbon copy of the VectorVu software from Tektronix for their (now discontinued) TTR VNA series. I wonder if they obtained it from Tek now that they are out of the VNA business...

[KE5FX]

Interesting, I didn't know Tek had discontinued their VNA.    It's (still) a rather crowded market.  From a message I posted a few months ago to an email list where the same question came up:

(snip)
There's a massive selection of VNA options in the $10K-and-under price class.  A few years ago, tempted by Copper Mountain's evident success, I built a 6 GHz 4-receiver USB VNA with the intent of jumping into the commercial market.  By the time I finished the prototype hardware, the bang:buck ratio was no longer competitive with some of the other offerings, so I ultimately killed the project.  In the course of making that decision, I did an informal market survey, which now includes more than a dozen competitive manufacturers:

- Arinst
- Deepace
- Anritsu's Shockline and SpectrumMaster series
- Keysight P937xA Streamline series
- Obviously the Keysight FieldFox qualifies
- Megiq
- Even MiniCircuits now offers a 6 GHz USB VNA (eVNA-63+)
- Copper Mountain
- Pico Technologies, as discussed here
- Tektronix TTR506A
- LA Techniques
- Transcom / Setup Electronica T6
- Siglent (not handheld, but much lighter and cheaper than some of the older competitors)

And that doesn't even count the low-end offerings in the NanoVNA, LibreVNA, PocketVNA and similar families, or Henrik Forsten's nicely-executed homebrew job at https://hforsten.com/improved-homemade-vna.html.  Ultimately, none of them including my own was a suitable replacement for my old 8753C/85047A outfit.  Most were either too expensive, lacked important features, specifications, and/or quality, or had some combination of the above drawbacks. 

If I were looking for a portable unit in the 4K range, I'd probably look for a used FieldFox.  But if you don't actually need any of the FieldFox's specs or unique features, it would be crazy not to start by spending a few hundred bucks on one of the newer Asian offerings and see if you outgrow it.  Failing that, the Megiq is probably a decent choice, going by Shahriar's review on his Signal Path channel, and the new ones from Tek, Keysight, and Mini-Circuits look intriguing as well.  None of them will be as cost-effective as a used HP, though, and certainly not as cost-effective as the newest generation of Nano-class models.  Not even close.
(end snip)

So, since you're in the position of having outgrown the low-cost Asian imports, my vote would be for an 8753C/D/ES or used FieldFox.  You can probably buy two or three of those for what the Mini-Circuits model costs.

[JohnG]

Thanks, your list is pretty comprehensive. The Fieldfox series never got on my radar, so to speak, not sure why. I will give it a look. I was hoping to avoid another boat anchor, because I'm getting tight on space.

John

[TheSteve]

If you get a FieldFox the cheapest unit with a proper 2 port VNA is the N9923A. After that for better performance(and a lot of other features) you'd need the N9914A and up.

[virtualparticles]

I haven't used the Minicircuits one but that software looks like a carbon copy of the VectorVu software from Tektronix for their (now discontinued) TTR VNA series. I wonder if they obtained it from Tek now that they are out of the VNA business...

You're correct. That is the old Tek VNA with perhaps a few changes.

[virtualparticles]

I have been on the lookout for a moderate cost VNA for my company. I recently came across one from Minicircuits, and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with it?

https://www.minicircuits.com/WebStore/Vector-Network_Analyzer.html

It is in line with small VNAs like those produced by Tek, Pico, etc. I don't need top of the line, but the NanoVNA is just not cutting it (amazing price/performance, but I need more performance). Mainly I need more dynamic range and a bit better frequency response, but also it gets old dealing with flaky and non-standard communication protocols.

The M5065 from Copper Mountain Technologies is a great piece of gear with 130 dB typical dynamic range. You can arrange for a demo on the website if you like.
https://coppermountaintech.com/vna/m5065-2-port-6-5-ghz-analyzer/

By the way, if you download the S2 UI software from the website, you can use it as an S-Parameter viewer. If you have enough points, you can also engage the Time Domain function and do time domain post processing analysis of Touchstone file data.
https://coppermountaintech.com/s2-vna-soft/


Best,

Brian

[G0HZU]

The 8753 series VNAs are good and proven workhorses but they are quite dated now. The user interface is quite clunky if you want to do any advanced stuff involving user cal kits or custom test fixtures. The processing is quite slow as well which leads to slower sweep times compared to modern machines. Also, the trace noise is quite high compared to a modern VNA and the dynamic range is not as high as newer models.

On the plus side, you do get proper bias tees at the rear, good calibration stability and excellent build quality with the 8753 series. Prices seem to have dropped a lot recently, probably due to the sheer number of modern alternatives. I would opt for the 8753D with the integral test set or the 8753ES if looking to buy one of these VNAs.

I was never impressed with the demo videos of the Tek TTR500 VNA, even when demonstrated by Tek themselves. The performance seemed quite poor although some of this may be due to the person demonstrating it. 

[Yashu]

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/picovna/msg3376770/#msg3376770

Pico seems to moving forward on their offerings w/ eCal now available. I pinged LA Techniques back in April 2022 about their GUI. They claimed they are pursuing a "re-development" w/ no time line. So wouldn't hold my breath on that one... but would welcome a surprise launch.

Also PicoVNAs are backordered, so they must be selling. But they use a top-end Microchip dsPIC33E uC... which is like impossible to get at this time due to pandemic.