Real-time spectrum-analyzer applications
-- Test & Measurement World, 9/5/2006 5:31:00 AM
Tektronix is targeting the RSA6100A Series of spectrum analyzers at radar, mobile-communications, software-defined-radio, cognitive-radio, and surveillance applications. Initial customers include X-COM, a radar developer; TelASIC, a supplier of radio subsystems; and Virginia Tech, where a researcher explores software-defined and cognitive radio.
At a product launch briefing, representatives of X-COM (www.SystemsX.com) were on hand to describe a radar application using the RSA6100A. Todd Smith, president of X-COM, which serves as a defense technology contractor providing US Navy AEGIS support, described how his firm uses the instrument in a radar simulation and test suite. He said the company combines a Tektronix arbitrary waveform generator, an RSA6100A, an X-COM RC-1T 1-TByte real-time capture instrument, and an X-COM DX ruggedized digital exciter in a closed-loop configuration in which the RSA6100A serves as a radar-digitizer front-end. The RSA6100A, said Smith, helps to capture transient RF behavior, measures RF out-of-band spurs, verifies circuit and signal paths, helps assure RF spectrum compliance, and supports multiple pulse measurements.Other customers described their applications in prepared statements. “Many new and emerging applications need to detect and analyze RF signals that quickly change frequencies or use complex modulation techniques,” said Dr. Jeff Reed of Virginia Tech University. “Traditional instruments often cannot adequately perform the measurements needed for these applications, requiring home-grown solutions that are often expensive and inefficient. Tektronix has addressed these problems by adding robust capabilities for the time domain through its RSA family of real-time spectrum analyzers. This ability of the RSA instruments to fully correlate the time, frequency, and modulation domains has been very useful in our work with software-defined and cognitive radio development. The additional bandwidth and dynamic range plus the unique real-time presentation of live RF signals make the new RSA6100A Series very attractive.”
“For TelASIC (www.telasic.com), a supplier of radio subsystems for HSDPA, EVDO, and WiMAX base stations, demonstrating that linearization techniques for designing highly-efficient power amplifiers do not cause any violations of spectral-emission mask and adjacent-channel power ratio specifications is difficult and critical,” said Ashis Khan, VP of sales and marketing for TelASIC. “Demonstrating no SEM/ACPR violations required that TelASIC develop a complete test environment using the Tektronix RS6100A. The RSA6100A Series real-time spectrum analyzers with live RF presentation easily revealed complete spectrum details, dramatically simplified our testing and demonstrated clear results.”
“The live RF spectrum technology provided by DPX waveform image processing offers a level of insight and diagnostic capability never seen before on spectrum analyzers,” said Galen Wampler, president of Prime Data (www.primedata.com), a market-research and consulting firm. “The performance specifications of the RSA6100A are industry-leading, and the ability to capture transient information is compelling. The RSA6100A is able to display signals and transients that no other instrument can show and is ideal for RF engineers who need to look for hidden, intermittent or infrequent signals. The RSA6100A Series will foster new digital RF applications and transform the performance and capability expectations of engineers for spectrum analyzers.”
“Tektronix’ real-time spectrum analyzers are the first and only analyzers designed specifically to solve digital RF problems,” said Rick King, VP for the Tektronix real-time spectrum analyzer product line. “The RSA6100A series is the first RF analyzer to simultaneously deliver 110-MHz real-time bandwidth and 73-dB spurious-free dynamic range, enabling the design of advanced and next-generation RF systems with wide capture bandwidth and no sacrifice in dynamic range. The live RF spectrum display provided by DPX waveform image processing provides engineers a view into signal instabilities and transients that they never knew existed. The RSA6100A is a perfect fit for the measurement needs of digital RF and will become a fundamental test instrument fueling the expansion of wireless communications.”
The Windows XP-based instruments provide a user interface that includes default settings for particular measurements, but the engineer can override the settings for added control. Each RSA6100A also provides a 10.4-in. XGA touch-screen display, a mouse, a keyboard, and conventional front-panel controls.
