White Papers

OpenRFM describes a standards-based, modular open architecture that proposes design, test, and control practices for interfacing RF and digital subsystems in an embedded computing architecture. It enables the integration of RF and microwave elements within electronic warfare (EW), radar and signals intelligence (SIGINT) sensor processing chains by standardizing electromechanical and thermal interfaces, software, and control plane protocols. The goal is to help enable prime contractors and the DoD to refresh existing and develop future applications more efficiently and affordably.

When multiple instrument form factors such as benchtop and PXI instruments are used in your design and manufacturing processes the challenge is to achieve reliably consistent measurement results while using the best instrument for a specific purpose. This application note provides a no-sacrifice-required solution for achieving consistent measurement results that correlate across instrument types, throughout the product development cycle.

Pulse signals are widespread in radar and other EW applications and must be accurately measured for manufacturing, design of countermeasures, and threat assessment. However, pulse measurements are an especially challenging area for signal analysis due to a combination of factors such as wide pulse bandwidth, pulses that are difficult to detect, and increasingly complex signal environments. This application note discusses the best tools for different types of pulse analysis, along with display and analysis techniques for various signals and measurement goals.

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the use of smart and connected electronic devices to enable greater efficiency and productivity in our daily lives. These devices permeate homes, vehicles, buildings, manage security, safety, energy, and inventories, and many other areas. Keysight flexible RF test solutions help you test IoT devices and get the most from your budget. We have prepared a series of application notes to address the test challenges of IoT devices.

Big Iron ATE isn't ready for the evolving RF test market. Its costs are simply too high and its flexibility too low. Discover how Ball Systems, a National Instruments Alliance Partner, integrated a fully modular RF test measurement system, for a new product line of WLAN Front End Modules (FEMs), covering multiple wireless bands and achieving high power compression test requirements in much less development time and at a substantially lower cost than a traditional solution.

Originally designed for use in military applications to deter enemy radar, electromagnetic absorbing materials and the technologies with which they are often packaged have advanced considerably. Absorbers have now found use in countless applications - from reducing capacitive coupling between an integrated circuit and heat sink to attenuating common mode currents along a trace or cable. In particular, automotive technologies have improved significantly, with such features as collision avoidance, lane-changing assist, and automatic parking becoming integrated into platforms by nearly every major automobile manufacturer.

Finding the source of radio frequency interference is a critically important activity as the number of emitters inexorably increases. These emitters are not only licensed and unlicensed transmitters but also many kinds of unintended emitters. Finding an interfering emitter is often more art and creative thinking than science.

One of the most important parameters in a radio is the noise floor, or the receiver's noise figure. These parameters determine the lowest signal strength of very weak input signals that the receiver can still recover successfully. If the receiver noise within the demodulated bandwidth is larger than the received signal itself, the weak input signal cannot be demodulated. In order to elevate the weak signal of interest above the receiver noise floor, either the transmit signal power must be increased or the noise floor of the receiver must be reduced.

Today's microwave and wireless communications market is expanding at an incredible rate, thus increasing the need for test equipment that will help verify the performance of devices and systems. A flexible tool for a broad scope of applications is the signal generator because of its wide frequency range, high output power and variety of modulations. For example, signal generators with a minimum frequency of 9 kHz permit applications in EMC measurements. Frequency coverage up to 12.75 GHz covers ISM bands as well as all important mobile radio bands. Microwave signal generators may cover or support frequencies up to 20 GHz, 40 GHz and even 110 GHz.

The surge of technologies that utilize RF design, ranging from mobile phones, to wireless Internet connections and communications using Bluetooth devices, requires a comprehensive understanding of RF design, manufacturing and test.  When you also include RF applications like RF Backhaul Video, GPS, GSM and CDMA communications protocols, radar, broadband communications, WiFi, ZigBee and RF transmitters and receivers, the need for your contract manufacturer (CM) to not only comprehend the issues and challenges, but to have a deep understanding of the failure mechanisms that can cause defects that fail long before completing their intended life expectancy is critical.