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Electro-Mechanical Broadband RF Switch.
• Single-Stage Driver Amplifier
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Quad-Band EDGE Radio Solution
• Modeling
3G / WCDMA / HSDPA
• Composite Filters
• Integration of Waveguide
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Coaxial Components
• Antennas Needed
• And More... |
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 New VCO
The CRO2781A-LF in S-band operates at 2780 MHz with a tuning voltage range of 0.5 to 4.5 Vdc. It features a typical phase noise of -115 dBc/Hz @ 10 KHz offset and a typical tuning sensitivity of 9 MHz/V. Its industry standard MINI-16 package is just 0.5 x 0.5 x 0.22".
 Wideband PA Module
A new wideband power amplifier module for use in microwave radio, VSAT, military & space, fiber optic and broadband test equipment applications from 100 MHz to 20 GHz has been introduced. The HMC-C057 is a GaAs pHEMT MMIC PA in a miniature hermetic module.
 Coaxial to Waveguide Adapters
Coaxial to Waveguide Adapters are offered in a variety of configurations. Option A, broadband adapters, have excellent electrical specs that are maintained over the entire adapter bandwidth. Option B offers enhanced performance over a specific band of the unit’s bandwidth.
 Digital Communication Analyzer
The latest addition to the PXIT product family, the PXIT 10G Digital Communication Analyzer (DCA) with Passive Optical Network (PON) filter rate options and smart post processing for the PXIT N2100B DCA, helps optical transceiver test vendors reduce their cost of test.
 LED Drivers
This new family of LED driver ICs significantly reduces the number and size of external components required by drive circuits. Operating at switching frequencies up to 600 kHz, AP880X Series step-down, DC-DC converters require only four smaller and lower cost inductors and/or capacitors.
 RF Interface DAS Panel
Created to control the output power from PAs, the 15C2NB is designed to combine and attenuate RF signals in steps of 1 dB up to 70 dB of maximum attenuation. With the operating frequency covering 800 MHz to 3 GHz, this design is ready for field deployment for GSM, PCS, WiMAX and LTE network architectures.
 Phase-Locked Crystal Oscillator
The PLXO-50 Phase-Locked Crystal Oscillator is used as the frequency reference in a surveillance RADAR application. The PLXO, which operates at 50 MHz, maximizes system performance with its exceptional phase noise (<-150 dBc/Hz @ 10 KHz) and other features.
 Directional Antenna
A wide angle 2.4 GHz antenna, model HG2405P-135, is designed for compact installations and is ideal for Wi-Fi, PCS, DCS, and custom applications. It gives the system designer wide angle coverage of an area without multiple antennas or larger footprint antennas.
 Band Reject Filters - Tunable
Band stop and cavity filters that can be re-adjusted by the customer to new center frequencies are now available. These filters are tunable over a +/-7.5% center frequency range with minimal change in bandwidth. Operating temperature range is -55 to +85ºC.
 Fast Rise/Fall Time Logic
Four new logic devices which are optimized for systems requiring fast rise/fall times, low jitter, and low DC power consumption have been released. They provide operating clock and data rates of 13 GHz/13 Gbps, and are ideal for deployment in ATE, broadband T&M equipment, frequency synthesis and radar signal processing systems.
 Ultra Low Phase Noise VCO
Model CRO1220A-LF in L-band operates at 1220 MHz with a tuning voltage range of 0 to 5 Vdc. This VCO features a typical phase noise of -118 dBc/Hz @ 10 KHz offset and a typical tuning sensitivity of 2 MHz/V. It is well suited for satellite communication and microwave radio applications.
 Design Verification Test Systems
The GS-9000 Assisted GPS (A-GPS) Design Verification Test systems were designed around the 8960 wireless communications test set’s new A-GPS assistance data messaging test capabilities. The capabilities support A-GPS validation, Total Isotropic Sensitivity testing and A-GPS pre-conformance testing for mobile devices.
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August 2008
USB Instrumentation
Comes of Age
By Richard Hawkins,
President
LadyBug Technologies LLC
I t’s startling to consider that 43 years have passed since Intel co-founder Gordon Moore enunciated what was to become known as “Moore’s Law”: that henceforth, the number of transistors on a chip would double approximately every two years.
In a testament to Dr. Moore’s foresight, engineers today remain preoccupied with processes that can yield better and faster performance, in an ever-smaller package, at a lower price. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the area of test equipment, where a technology shift is under way.
USB: Changing the Face of Test
Today, Universal Serial Bus (USB) test instruments might be seen as a manifestation of Moore’s Law: they leverage the best aspects of both test equipment and PCs, respectively, by placing measurement technology in the USB instrument, while reserving the data computing and processing functions for the personal computer.
To illustrate: prior to the advent of USB power meters, engineers would typically employ a standalone power meter and a selection of sensors, depending on the frequency and type of measurement desired. The smallest power meters occupied at least one rack height in a typical system cabinet, with associated costs of between $3,000 and $7,000 for the power meter and an additional $2,000 to $3,000 for the power sensors.
And, if the engineer wanted to automate his/her measurements, in addition to the above components the test setup also required a PC or UNIX machine as the system controller.
In contrast, today’s USB power meters combine the base unit and the sensor into one compact package that is, by itself, often smaller than older power sensors that attached to standalone power meters. These new units exceed the performance attributes of older “box” meters, require no incremental rack space, and represent a dramatic cost savings. Price tags are typically 50 to 80 percent lower than those of older, standalone products.
Smaller, Faster, Cheaper — and More Sophisticated
Smaller, cheaper measurement packages tell only part of the story, however. The advanced architecture offered by some of today’s USB power meters enables a few brands in this space to deliver significantly faster measurement speeds, a greater variety of measurements, and simply more useful data — all in a miniaturized, more rugged package.
For example: LadyBug Technologies markets a line of pocket-sized USB power meter sensors that require no “zeroing” or calibration whatsoever prior to each use. This “no-zero, no-cal” feature — unique among LadyBug’s field of competitors — represents a big improvement in the working life of the test engineer or technician. It means that the time-consuming chores of disconnecting sensors from a DUT and performing zeroing as well as calibration are gone.
Our products can provide not only CW power measurements, but also average pulse power, peak pulse power, duty cycles, peak-to-average power ratio, and sophisticated time-domain analysis. This broad capability range is offered by a unit that fits in the palm of the hand, costs approximately one-third as much as older meter sensor setups, and provides measurements in milliseconds.
With some LadyBug units capable of measurement speeds of 2,000 settled readings per second, these new USB packages hold the promise of measuring options extending well beyond the power category. A host of more sophisticated real-time measurements will inevitably become available: active and passive multi-port S-parameter scalar measurements; mixer measurements; gain compression, and so on.
In the traditionally conservative world of test equipment, USB instrumentation represents nothing less than a complete technology shift, with customers being the primary beneficiaries. We predict that the popularity and deployment of USB packages will grow exponentially in the next few years, and that they will change the size, look, and feel of test equipment for many years to come. Gordon Moore’s 1965 vision of ever-greater capability in smaller packages has broadened to encompass test and measurement, to the great benefit of those who work in this specialized, vital field.
LadyBug Technologies LLC
TXTLINX.COM 66
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