Aeroflex announced its new modular RF test platform for wireless applications up to 6 GHz. The scaleable platform has the flexibility to easily perform at any stage of wireless development from research to manufacturing, and can integrate seamlessly into any wireless market including cellular, wireless data, RFIC test and military/aerospace.

The configurable RF measurement system encompasses three powerful new additions: New PXI 3000 Series hardware modules, PXI Studio software with new measurement plug-ins, and a new PXI instrument chassis to tie it all together.

“The combination of a single-sourced PXI instrument chassis, with system controller, PXI module resources and PXI Studio application software heralds the arrival of a complete out-of-the-box configurable and scalable RF measurement system that surpasses the performance of rack-and-stack instrumentation of old,” said Tim Carey, PXI product manager, Aeroflex Test Solutions. “The flexibility and speed offered by the Aeroflex 3000 Series modular platform sets a new benchmark for configurable instrumentation, offering users a degree of freedom never before imagined.”

The Aeroflex RF modular measurement system is comprised of PXI 3000 Series modules which now additionally includes: 3025C, a 1 MHz to 6 GHz digital signal generator; 3030C, a 250 kHz to 3 GHz wideband RF digitizer; and 3035C, a 250 kHz to 6 GHz wideband RF digitizer.

With this launch, the frequency range coverage of the PXI 3000 Series hardware modules has been extended to include all HF, VHF and UHF bands—from 250 kHz to 6 GHz for signal analysis and 1 MHz to 6 GHz for signal generation. This extends the application base to include military/aerospace applications as well as cellular, wireless data and RFIC test.

The new 3025C module features an increased RF output power range of -120 dBm to +7 dBm to more effectively support RF component testing. All new modules provide the ability to generate and analyze signals with RF bandwidths up to 90 MHz—nearly three times the bandwidth on current models. This places Aeroflex at the leading edge for instrumentation technology capable of supporting WiMAX and other emerging wideband communications systems.

The new hardware modules have been made even faster to further accelerate production throughput. For example, new features within the digitizer family offer an 80 percent improvement in data-transfer speed over the PCI bus and the new 3025C signal generator can switch frequency ten times faster than before for frequencies up to 85 MHz.

These latest additions to the Aeroflex 3000 Series modular RF test platform are available for delivery beginning in October 2007.