White Papers

More of today's design problems are being caused by the systems that power them. Designs are placing higher demands on their power systems and so during the design phase, your power supply needs to be able to provide reliable power to your device under test.

It’s easy to underestimate the challenges of network analysis at millimeter-wave frequencies. Follow these hints to optimize your measurements for ease, accuracy, and repeatability.

You're expected to deliver excellent results while staying within stringent budget constraints. Did you know that your test assets are critical to your success? Our new complimentary eBook offers eight ways to shift your perspective, enhance your processes, and transform test asset insights into an increased return on investment. 

Traditionally RF power amplifiers used GaAs technology which has a well behaved and understood performance. Over the past few years GaN technology is replacing GaAs because GaN is more efficient and has a higher power density resulting in higher power MMICs and FETs.

Development of any wireless system is a demanding task, bounded by tight constraints and complicated by innumerable tradeoffs. This application note offers solutions that will help you overcome fundamental challenges in transmitter testing, including standard-compliance, power measurements, interference, EMC, and power consumption.

The new 802.11ax standard (High Efficiency or HE specification) aims to provide better spectral efficiency, capacity, and coverage in dense deployment scenarios as well as outdoor environments, with a goal to improve the average throughput per station by at least 4x compared to 802.11ac. Let’s look at five new features in 802.11ax that enable these improvements.

One of the most challenging things about working with millimeter-wave technology is getting accurate measurements. Uncertainty can be introduced at many points during testing, so selecting the right test equipment is an important decision.

While some of the challenges that lie ahead to meet the 5G requirements may seem daunting, simulation can already be used to develop understanding and explore innovative solutions. Altair FEKO offers comprehensive solutions for device and base station antenna design, while WinProp will determine the requirements for successful network deployment.

This paper introduces the fundamental theory behind beamforming antennas. In addition, calculation methods for radiation patterns with simulations results, as well as some real world measurement results for small linear arrays are shown. Due to the likely bandwidths in such applications, a non-standard way of graphical representation is proposed.

The software interface is an often overlooked, yet critical item in putting together a test system. It’s not enough for a piece of equipment to work well in isolation. In a production environment it must interact with and take commands from other modules, and in a laboratory setting it must work seamlessly with multiple hosts. Understanding some of the potential interface barriers and how to remove them is an important first step before evaluating any piece of test equipment.