White Papers

Learn about the fundamentals of noise and noise figure measurements, including the Y-factor technique and methods to calculate measurement uncertainty.

RF co-site interference has become a major issue with the proliferation of antennas, particularly in dense urban areas. This paper offers a practical perspective for those using or specifying new RF wireless systems about what RF co-site interference is, where it comes from, and some of the most common techniques and tools that are available in today’s market to solve these RF co-site interference problems.

This application note describes the differences between benchtop and PXI system architectures and programming interfaces to help you select the right programming interface for your application. Tips are included to make your integration job easier.

Keysight's new white paper, The Communication System Architect's Guide to 5G Physical Layer Modeling, describes how to model and evaluate a next-generation communication system in combined multi-domain simulation environments. With complex analog and digital components, it is vital to model accurately to understand the behavior of the system. 

Technology advancement in the electronic industry is unyielding but new trends will build on RF communications to drive new product functionality. Some examples include the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G mobile networks and automation/smart technology.

This NI AWR Design Environment(TM) white paper, "Design of Class F Power Amplifiers Using Cree GaN HEMTs and Microwave Office Software to Optimize Gain, Efficiency and Stability" details how Microwave Office circuit design software can be used to design power amplifiers employing Cree gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) to maximize power-added efficiency (PAE) by optimizing source and load pull at both fundamental and harmonic frequencies. The load-pull scripts that are available in Microwave Office circuit design software have been used extensively to find the optimum trade-offs in power gain, efficiency, and stability.

This note describes basic qualities of antennas and attempts to use those descriptive properties as a framework to transmit ideas about a new antenna type- called the Hybrid Antenna.

Solid State Power Amplifiers (SSPAs) incorporating GaN transistors provide compact and efficient sources of microwave power. CPI has developed a 1.5 kW X-band SSPA, CPI model VSX3622, for radar applications. The VSX3622 SSPA combines the power from two VSX3614 SSPAs, which each operate at nominally 1 kW, saturated. This paper will present details of the design and performance data for both amplifiers.

This NI AWR Design Environment(TM) white paper describes co-simulation capabilities of Visual System Simulator(TM) (VSS) system design software and LabVIEW, enabling system designers to better analyze, optimize, and verify complex RF systems inclusive of digital signal processing (DSP) blocks.

We will first present an overview of phased-array antenna fundamentals and basic Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) principles and challenges, and then we will explain how planar solutions can help with form-factor issues. We will also show how planar solutions at frequencies at or above X-band require increased integration, as well as highlighting some associated challenges.