White Papers
October 18, 2012
A ready reference poster of multiple RF/microwave amplifier graphs and tables from AR RF/Microwave Instrumentation .
October 16, 2012
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.
October 15, 2012
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.
September 28, 2012
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.
September 18, 2012
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.
September 18, 2012
This application note is designed to provide you with the latest insights on how to best address the long list of test requirements when testing the voice quality of LTE UE, with the right VoIP test building blocks. Successfully providing voice support on LTE will require UE developers to bring together a host of new features and capabilities. Many of these items have been around for a while but have not yet been applied to mobile networking. Others are completely new. Regardless, bringing them together will likely cause significant test pain, as they will need to be tested in conjunction with LTE and/or IMS to be fully exercised.
September 17, 2012
The complexity of modern digital equipment has caused EMI/EMC susceptibility
testing to become increasingly important. Many EMC standards have been created
including MILSTD- 461, IEC 61000, ISO 11451 Automotive, EN 50, and FCC
part 15 that provide specific guidelines for EMC and EMI test methodologies. Early
standards required a CW carrier, or single tone with constant modulation as the
disturbance test signal. This article will discuss how a peak power sensor can replace an average
diode detector in a field probe to measure pulse power, improve repeatability and
increase dynamic range of the power measurement.
September 17, 2012
This paper provides a comprehensive review of modern automated load-pull, including a discussion of early impedance synthesis methods, and how they were improved with breakthrough innovations such as Focus MPTTM technology and systematic high-VBW sub-1 Ω test-fixture design techniques. More recent developments are next treated, including active-loop and active-injection impedance synthesis architectures, time-domain data acquisition, and advanced data processing and
visualization.
August 13, 2012
Most discussions of IMS refer to the all-IP network and the massive levels of convergence it will deliver:
convergences of access technologies, services and control functions. In describing the IMS subsystem
itself, most of the attention is given to the large-scale upgrades required near the heart of the network.
However, developers working on cellular devices require a different viewpoint than those working at
higher layers of the protocol stack. In that light, this article presents a brief overview of the IMS
subsystem from the perspective of the mobile device.
August 13, 2012
A system that utilizes OFDM/OFDMA, such as the E-UTRA (LTE) downlink or the IEEE 802.11a/g and the IEEE 802.16 physical
layers, transmits OFDM symbols, each comprising a number of modulated sub-carriers carrying data or pilot symbols, with
inter-subcarrier spacing being equal to or an integer multiple of a fixed frequency. The channel bandwidth (B) is determined by
the number of 'occupied' (modulated) subcarriers and the subcarrier spacing.
