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Commonly used substrates for high power resistors and terminations are Beryllia, Aluminum Nitride, and to alesser extent, Boron Nitride and Silicon Carbide. While these materials are known for their superior thermal properties, none of them come even close to matching the thermal conductivity of CVD Diamond.
The Mini-Circuits family of microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) Darlington amplifiers offers the RF designer multi-stage performance in packages that look like a discrete transistor.
Learn more about the background of radar systems and the role of transponders in these systems, and why periodic maintenance and calibration of transponder test sets are important for ensuring aviation safety. This application note provides examples of how to effectively test transponders to validate their performance and function, covering topics such as interrogation and reply transmit power and pulse profiling, double pulse spacing, and reply delay timing measurement.
Fiber Optic Delay Line systems (FODL) are used in test and
development laboratories to eliminate outdoor range testing
of radio and radar systems. Outdoor range testing is
costly, complex, and time-consuming.
The True Balanced/Differential technique uses two sources to create actual differential and common-mode stimuli, hence the shortened name true-balanceÂ. This white paper offers guidance to signal integrity designers on the differences between these approaches and which one may best fit their need.
Software-defined RF test system architectures have become increasingly popular over the past several decades. Almost every commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) automated RF test system today uses application software to communicate through a bus interface to the instrument. As RF applications become more complex, engineers are continuously challenged with the dilemma of increasing functionality without increasing test times, and ultimately test cost. While improvements in test measurement algorithms, bus speeds, and CPU speeds have reduced test times, further improvements are necessary to address the continued increase in the complexity of RF test applications.
Higher data rates introduce new challenges for test solutions. There are several 20+ Gbit/s high speed standards (Table 1) that are driving the upper end of the test spectrum to 70 GHz and even 110 GHz. Accurate measurements are needed to better understand higher order harmonics, as will new challenges related to conductor skin effects and dielectric losses on PC boards, along with the design trade-offs related to choices of vias, stackups, and connector pins.
Featured for the first time at Autovation 2012 will be the RF Savvy Series, patent pending, Nona-band Radio Frequency (RF) Coupler from Alpha Micro Wireless. The high 10 kV electrical isolation enables safe routing of the RF signal from the network interface card (NIC) or wireless modem to a remote external antenna via a bulk head RF connection in the meter base.
The "Testing New-generation Wireless LAN" application note discusses the differences between 802.11ac (designed for Very High Throughput - VHT) and previous WLAN standards, the test requirements and the new challenges VHT brings. The application note also introduces the WLAN new-generation testing technology of 802.11ac and explains in detail Agilent's 802.11ac software which allows engineers to view and troubleshoot all 802.11ac modulation formats.