Spectrum analyzer capabilty slashes spurious measurment times for VNAs
This industry-first capability reduces test times by a factor of 10 to 500 times. Incorporating this functionality into a VNA simplifies system connections and saves time by putting high-speed spurious measurements in the instrument used to characterize S-parameters, compression and distortion in satellite equipment, defense electronics and commercial wireless devices.
Engineers find it time consuming to perform spurious measurements, thus forcing tradeoffs between test time and test coverage. With the new high-performance spectrum analyzer capability, a Keysight PNA can perform fast spurious searches across a broad frequency band, improving test throughput by as much as 500 times compared to existing approaches. Measurement results are comparable to those obtained with today’s fastest, most sophisticated standalone spectrum or signal analyzers.
The VNA also can perform simultaneous spectrum measurements on all test ports. This unique, industry-first capability reduces design cycle time by enabling one-connection characterization of mixers, converters, amplifiers, modules or subsystems. Example measurements include LO, RF and IF feedthrough; harmonics; intermodulation products; and other higher-order mixing products.
In-fixture and on-wafer measurements gain the benefits of VNA calibration and de-embedding, which correct receiver-response errors and also remove cable and fixture effects. The resulting improvement in test accuracy makes it possible to achieve narrower test margins and tighter device specifications.