Reactel Incorporated recently announced expansion of its measurement capabilities to 67 GHz with the addition of a mmWave vector network analyzer (VNA). This test instrument provides precise measurements of signal amplitude and phase over a wide frequency range, from RF through mmWave frequencies. The additional measurement capabilities enable Reactel’s engineers to develop and evaluate filters for the mmWave frequency bands being deployed in global 5G new radio cellular wireless networks in support of high-data-rate communications and high speed streaming video.

Established in 1979, Reactel has been a trusted designer and supplier of RF and microwave filters, multiplexers and multifunction assemblies with a wide range of responses and physical formats up to 50 GHz, which formerly was the upper-frequency limit of their measurement capabilities. Adding high performance, high-resolution test equipment with measurement capabilities through 67 GHz enables Reactel’s designers to develop and characterize new filters, multiplexers and multifunction assemblies operating through 67 GHz and Reactel’s production engineers to ensure that each filter’s performance levels, such as passband insertion loss and return loss and out-of-band rejection, meet published specifications into the mmWave frequency range. Reactel offers many topologies, including waveguide, coaxial and miniature drop-in filter housings. The new VNA provides measurements of amplitude and power with better than 0.1 dB resolution and accuracy and measurements of phase with better than 0.1-degree resolution and accuracy from 10 MHz through 67 GHz. 

Filters are essential components in high frequency electronic systems through 67 GHz, such as automotive radars and wireless communications networks. Filters help maintain signal channel stability in crowded signal environments, ideally minimizing the loss of desired signals while achieving high isolation and low interference from signals close in frequency within the same operating environment.