Tektronix Inc., a leading innovator of signal generation and analysis solutions required for the microwave and RF industry, announced the lowest cost real-time spectrum analyzer for mid-range performance, featuring the industry’s most advanced signal discovery and triggering capabilities. Included in the expansion of the RSA5000 Real-Time Spectrum Analyzer Series are new 26.5 and 15 GHz models along with the recently-announced 110 MHz bandwidth option that is now available on all Tektronix Real-Time Spectrum Analyzers.
The growth of digital RF across a crowded wireless spectrum has led to the need for signal analyzers able to capture the briefest of spectrum occurrences to ensure proper operation and to avoid interference issues. At the same time, economic pressures have led customers to require a single instrument that can meet their demanding spectrum analyzer needs and be able to troubleshoot the problems unique to today’s transient, hopping signals. The new 26.5 GHz and 15 GHz RSA5000 Series models meet these needs with a leading balance of high-end performance and mid-range pricing.
“Now more than ever, RF engineers need spectrum analyzers with the frequency coverage required for today’s radios,” said Jim McGillivary, general manager of the Source Analyzer Product Line, Tektronix. “The RSA5000 Series hits the mark with a significant performance boost, a powerful real-time feature set and new 110 MHz bandwidth options that offer faster time to insight.”
Available for the first time in a mid-range spectrum analyzer, the 110 MHz bandwidth option is especially important because many of today’s wireless communications standards require engineers to see a wider frequency range. The wider bandwidth also enables uninterrupted signal monitoring or surveillance of frequency bands of interest.
Fast discovery of signal problems with DPX toolset
The revolutionary DPX spectrum display used in the RSA5000 Series offers an intuitive live color view of signal transients as they change over time in the frequency domain. This live display of transients is impossible with other signal analyzers. A number of advanced DPX features including swept DPX, gap-free DPX spectrograms, and DPX zero span with real-time amplitude, frequency, or phase make it easy to find troublesome signals under a variety of conditions.
Quick capture of anomalies enabled by unique triggering
The RSA5000 Series provides a comprehensive set of triggers essential for troubleshooting modern digitally implemented RF systems. These include time-qualified power, runt, density, frequency, and frequency mask triggers. Also included are a number of DPX triggers including the DPX density trigger that works on the measured frequency of occurrence and “trigger on this” that allows the user to point at the signal of interest on the DPX display.
Faster time to insight with correlation across multiple domains
The RSA5000 Series accelerates troubleshooting and analysis by pinpointing the root cause of problems in multiple domains. Engineers can analyze captured data across domains at any time using correlated markers. Time-correlated measurements can be made across frequency, phase, amplitude, and modulation domains. This is ideal for signal analysis that includes frequency hopping, pulse characteristics, modulation switching, settling time, bandwidth changes, and intermittent signals.
For deep troubleshooting and analysis, RSA5000 data captures can be used with SignalVu-PC software for offline analysis helping to free up test resources. Like the RSA5000, SignalVu-PC offers extensive vector signal analysis functionality spanning spectrum, spectrogram, and RF measurements including analog modulation analysis, adjacent channel power, CCDF, occupied bandwidth plus amplitude, frequency and phase vs. time. Options for more advanced analysis functions are also available including modulation, pulse, settling time, audio and flexible OFDM measurements.
Pricing & availability
RSA5000 26.5 GHZ and 15 GHz models will be available in January, 2013. U.S. MSRP starts at $47,900 for the 26.5 GHz model.