December 2010 Aeroflex Introduces New SGA
By Aeroflex
Aeroflex has just introduced a new range of general purpose portable benchtop RF instruments at an attractive price. The first products include two SGAs covering the 100 KHz to 3 and 6 GHz range. These signal generators are compact and lightweight with low phase noise, accuracy and fast settling time.
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November 2010 M&A in the DMM Market
By David Vye
Agilent's recent acquisition of certain assets from Signametrics, a pioneer and 20-year veteran in the plug-in DMM market, should strengthen Agilent's position in manufacturing production and automotive test systems.
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October 2010 T&M on Display at this Season's Trade Shows
By David Vye
With a large number of trade shows occurring this month, there is no shortage of opportunities for Test and Measurement vendors to unveil new instruments. From EumW to Milcom, here’s a quick look at what some manufacturers have on display
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September 2010 Aeroflex's Broadband Signal System
By David Vye
Aeroflex Cupertino, leading specialists in producing digital broadband test and measurement solutions for wireless and satellite communications, recently introduced an integrated modular Broadband Signal System (BSS) comprised of a signal analyzer and generator or BSAG. The CS9000 BSS, which was introduced at AUTOTESTCON this week, provides the widest bandwidth and deepest memory in a modular RF/baseband test system on the market today.
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August 2010 Satimo's OTA Throughput Measurement Solution
By SATIMO
New wireless standard protocols such as HSPA, LTE, and WiMax are employing multi-antennas on both the terminal and base stations sides. Multi-input Multi-output (MIMO) technology is used in order to enhance system performance in terms of higher spectral efficiency, better Quality of Service (QoS), and good link quality, especially in a strong multipath and fading environment. MIMO system performances are strongly dependent on antenna properties and the channel environment. MIMO and multi-antenna terminals cannot be reliably tested with the current Single Input Single Output (SISO) OTA methodology, which is based on 3-D radiated power or received sensitivity pattern measurements with an isotropic weighting (uniform channel model)
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July 2010 Rohde & Schwarz Integrates Multiple Technology Innovations Into New Oscilloscopes
By Rohde & Schwarz
Rohde & Schwarz has entered into the oscilloscope market with two technologically advanced product families that span the measurement spectrum from 500 MHz to 2 GHz, offer sampling rates of up to 10 Gsample per second and introduce several technological innovations that deliver significantly superior test results.
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June 2010 Anritsu's MG3690C minimizes instrument-induced clock jitter
By David Vye, MWJ Editor
Anritsu Co. introduced the MG3690C series of RF/microwave signal generators that combines best-in-class phase noise and broad frequency generation to allow engineers to conduct highly accurate tests on subsystems, especially those in local oscillator substitution and clock generation applications. The overall performance of the MG3690C signal generators makes them well suited to test microwave components, subsystems, and systems during design and manufacturing, as well as for signal simulation to test and verify radar and communications systems.
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May 2010 New solution for performance testing LTE base stations
By David Vye, MWJ Editor
During the development of an LTE base station, also referred to as eNB, a series of different tests are necessary to prove that it is operating correctly. After verifying the transmitter and receiver branch, the performance is evaluated, in order to satisfy compliance with the requirements covered 3GPP technical specifications. In particular, the conformance test specification defines two challenging closed-loop performance tests to characterize the performance of LTE base station receivers: hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback and uplink (UL) timing adjustment, a newly added feature for LTE. Rohde & Schwarz has introduced a new option R&S SMU-K69 (LTE closed loop BS test) for its R&S SMU200A high-end vector signal generator that supports real-time processing of feedback information in LTE base station receiver tests.
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April 2010 Anritsu's VNA for Gigabit Design
By David Vye, MWJ Editor
Anritsu’s new 12-Port 70 GHz vector network analyzer (VNA) System, the latest member of their VectorStar VNA product line, measures multi-port balanced differential and mixed-mode networks used in today’s high-speed bus designs, covering an extremely wide band of frequencies (40 MHz to 70 GHz). Traditionally, VNAs measure S-parameter on single-ended, 50 ohm components and devices, however as digital communications systems and buses increase in speed (and frequency), multi-port, mixed-mode S-parameters have become an effective tool for characterizing the signal integrity (SI) of signal lines, buses, and components operating at high digital speeds.
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March 2010 Aeroflex tester touts multiple-handset emulation for DC-HSDPA
By David Vye, MWJ Editor
In the demanding world of developing new cellular equipment, base stations typically arrive long before mobiles. But without a mobile, how can the base station be tested? The TM500 Test Mobile from Aeroflex provides an answer. The TM500 DC-HSDPA Multi-UE Test Mobile enables 3G infrastructure equipment manufacturers to perform rigorous load testing. With the TM500, they can test the performance of their DC-HSDPA base stations under conditions of increasing user demand, speeding up the development of infrastructure equipment and its deployment in networks.
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February 2010 New Test Solution for RF Semiconductor Devices
By David Vye, MWJ Editor
The new features in IVCAD from Amcad helps RF test engineers perform advanced characterization such as pulsed IV, pulsed S parameter and load pull measurement of RF semiconductor device. In addition, it includes transistor equivalent circuit model extraction tools and circuit behavioral modeling plug-in.
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January 2010 New GPS Receiver Verification Test Solution
By Agilent Technologies
This month, Agilent Technologies introduced GPS receiver verification software for its PXB baseband generator and channel emulator platform. The new Agilent N7609B Signal Studio for Global Navigation Satellite Systems software is the only 12-satellite, 24-channel signal simulator built on a high-performance, general-purpose signal generator.
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December 2009 A-GPS Over-the-Air Test Method
By Spirent and ETS-Lindgren
Until recently, all industry-defined A-GPS test methodologies focused on testing the performance of a device over a cabled RF connection, bypassing the GPS antenna and associated circuitry, as shown in Figure 1. This approach does not give the complete picture of real-world device performance and its impact on the end-user experience of LBS applications. To achieve this, GPS performance testing needs to include all relevant components. An Over-The-Air (OTA) test methodology, shown in Figure 2, is the best solution to address this need.
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November 2009 Driving Next-generation Designs with an Evolutionary Signal Analyzer
By Jeff Owen, Agilent Technologies
When developing next-generation microwave devices, high performance in a signal analyzer makes it possible to find and fix anomalies in less time. Of course, the problems change from day to day: today it might be a low-level spur hiding near a strong fundamental; tomorrow it could be an intermittent glitch in a complex new modulation scheme. To help designers handle whatever may crop up next, the Agilent N9030A PXA signal analyzer combines exceptional performance with reconfigurable measurement capabilities and a future-ready architecture. The result is an analyzer that can evolve with changing requirements in current- and next-generation designs.
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October 2009 Delivering Advanced Capabilities in a Low-cost Signal Analyzer
By James Chen, Agilent Technologies Inc.
In the evaluation of RF communication signals and technologies, spectrum or signal analyzers are often the tool of choice for engineers in R&D and manufacturing. When selecting an analyzer, however, there has often been a direct link between price and capability: Lower price usually means less functionality and less flexibility. Finding yet another way to innovate in signal analysis, Agilent Technologies is now bringing greater functionality and flexibility to a lower price point with its N9000A CXA signal analyzer.
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September 2009 Executive Interview with NMDG founder Marc Vanden Bossche
By Richard Mumford, MWJ International Editor
In this interview, the founder and CEO of NMDG explains the company’s focus on nonlinear characterization and behavior of high frequency electronic components, how the Belgium based company evolved and the company’s development of key partnerships, both commercial and with academia.
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April 2009 Greener wireless: Non-linear analysis applied to wireless device characterization
By Darren McCarthy, Tektronix and Wally Arceneaux, Mesuro
New approaches in extrapolating the measured waveform data into a fundamental and harmonic space have been developed recently. One such approach is an integrated measurement system that supports simultaneous measurement of device’s actual current and voltage waveforms while offering control of the harmonic source/load impedance over the entire Smith chart. For the harmonic impedance control and active load pull it is necessary to compensate for any losses between the device under test and the source/load pull. Such an integrated system enables a genuine and coherent link between the nonlinear device characterization and PA design.
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