White Papers

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. 

Often RADAR equipment designers are faced with power level requirements which far exceed the level achievable from a single solid state device. While GaN technology has brought higher power densities to the designer's toolbox, paralleling two or more devices for even higher power levels is still routinely done in the industry. For the device designer it is of great benefit to understand what the equipment designer is faced with when scaling up the power by combining multiple RF power devices. This paper provides a detailed report of the design, build, and test of a 4-stage L-band amplifier module based on four MAGX-001214-650L0S GaN RF power transistors in the final stage. The demonstration amplifier will be designed to achieve at least 2kW of peak RF power under pulsed operating conditions over the frequency band of 1.20 1.40 GHz.

RF record and playback is an important method used to validate real-world GNSS (GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, and Beidou) systems. The sheer volume of data that these systems create necessitates being able to stream data to disk and analyze it later. Engineers and researchers are now recording and playing back real-world signals for all types of RF systems. They are simple to install and use and can be driven around in a vehicleâ??s trunk or backseat. These devices can record data including the exact location of a vehicle when important situations occur and precise weather and road conditions.

There are many wireless technologies that utilize RF design ranging from mobile phones to satellite TV, to wireless Internet connections and Bluetooth devices. This white paper will provide insight into how these technologies work, as well as considerations during the design, development and verification process. After reading this paper you'll have practical knowledge on the entire process for designing an RF system.

Many multifunction devices require wider bandwidths, complex modulation schemes and multiple transmit and receive chains, which significantly increases device complexity and test expense. This application note provides useful tips on how to select the right test instruments which enable you to reduce design time, increase production throughput, and ultimately reduce your costs associated with test.

Read this white paper to learn more about how you can expand GNSS spectrum coverage by capturing RF signals from all GNSS orbiting satellites, then storing and playing the signals back in the lab to accelerate receiver testing. In order to greatly expand recording bandwidth, you can deploy multiple tightly synchronized recorders in the field. Averna, an NI Platinum Alliance Partner, studied the example of two RP-5300 recorders (2x50 MHz channels each) that were synchronously inter-connected to form a virtual recorder with total bandwidth of 200 MHz.

A critical component of a base station is the power amplifier (PA). Over the past two decades the PA has experienced monumental changes in its architecture and performance. Two significant improvements have been in power-added efficiency & bandwidth. Fifteen years ago a 2G basestation PA housed in a ground base station cabinet would output 5 MHz multi carrier CDMA signals at 40 W; running at 5% efficiency it would generate 760 W of heat, taking up a significant amount of space, power and cooling resources and costing thousands of dollars. Today's 4G amplifiers using Doherty architecture with predistortion has improved the efficiency of an amplifier to over 35%, significantly reducing the size and enabling integration of the PA with the transceiver and the duplexer into a remote radio head (RRH) placed near the antenna.

This paper offers a description of a process to change the operating frequency range of an existing power amplifier circuit using only Smith chart and transmission line calculation software, demonstrating that experimental tuning and review with a Smith chart can avoid the possibility of creating an untenable design. It also addresses the possibilities of applying this approach to other RF power outputs, frequency range conversions and bandwidth extensions, as long as several key caveats are observed.