At IMS, Vaunix announced the release of a new, portable 0.1 to 40 GHz Lab Brick™ programmable digital attenuator for broadband RF and microwave test and measurement applications.
Model LDA-403 is a high-resolution digital attenuator that features a 31.5 dB attenuation range and 0.5 dB step size. It is ideal for use in creating highly refined automated test equipment stands for Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi6E, 4G, 5G, LTE, DVB, microwave radio fading simulators and for engineering/production test labs.
In addition to its impressive attenuation characteristics, this bi-directional, 50-ohm attenuator offers insertion loss specs ranging from 3 dB at 6 GHz to 9.5 dB at 40 GHz. It is easily programmable for fixed attenuation, swept attenuation ramps and fading profiles directly from the included graphical user interface or webUI. Alternatively, for users wishing to develop their own interface, Vaunix supplies LabVIEW drivers, Windows API DLL files, Linux drivers and Python examples. Multiple LDA-403 units can be powered and controlled through a single connection to a PC by linking the expansion bus of the attenuators.
The LDA-403 offers both USB and Ethernet interfaces, measures 4.27 x 1.97 x 0.86 in. (108.5 x 50 x 21.8 mm) and weighs just 0.4 lbs. (182 g). The USB port uses a native HID interface to avoid the difficulties inherent in using older serial or IEEE-488 interfaces implemented over USB. Plus, Lab Brick devices can be easily used on any system that supports USB HID devices, including low-cost embedded computers using Linux or similar operating systems.) The Ethernet interface is configurable for Static IP or DHCP with the ability to assign the HTTP port for extra security.
The LDA-403 can be ordered directly from the Vaunix website.