Keithley Unveils RF Vector Signal Generator

Keithley Instruments, Inc., a developer of electrical test instruments and systems, announced that it has upgraded its RF Vector Signal Generator line for RF engineers with new capabilities that reduce signal generation times and enhance signal quality.

The Model 2920A, which provides signal generation bandwidth options up to 80MHz with a frequency range of either 10MHz-4GHz or 10MHz-6GHz, builds on the capabilities of Keithley's Series 2900 signal generator line. It expands the Series 2900 line's applications for testing wireless devices to high throughput, complex modulation, and wide bandwidth wireless telecom standards, including GSM/EDGE, cdmaOne, cdma2000, W-CDMA, HSPA, HSPA+, LTE, WLAN, WiMAX, WiBro, TD-SCDMA, DVB (Digital Video Broadcast), and GPS (Global Positioning System).

The company said the Model 2920A is optimized for calibrating and testing components such as amplifiers, filters, and wireless receivers thoroughly. Several advances allow it to provide higher test throughput than earlier signal generation options:

- A technique that ensures settling of phase-locked loop synthesizers allows the Model 2920A to tune to a new frequency on a device under test's (DUT's) operating band.

- The Model 2920A provides electronic attenuation and an automatic level control loop to stabilize on a new power level, which allows switching to a new amplitude.

- Because devices that operate on multiple standards require rapid switching between numerous complex signals during testing, the Model 2920A's on-board arbitrary waveform generator includes a 100-megasample memory to hold individual waveforms or multiple smaller ones.

- High speed signal file transfers: The Model 2920A offers a direct link from its DSP processing circuit block to an external PC via a USB 2.0 bus that maximizes operating speed. In this high-speed Desktop Control Panel operating mode, an external PC assumes control of the Model 2920A, as if it were the instrument's on-board processor controller. This test package allows verifying a device's compliance with FCC, ETSI, and TELEC requirements related to ensuring that WLAN access point transmissions detect and do not interfere with government radar signals (such as weather radar or air traffic control radar).

The Model 2920A is the latest addition to Keithley's MIMO (Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output) testing system solutions. MIMO signals can be generated and analyzed by using Keithley's SignalMeister RF Communications Test Toolkit software and Model 2820A Vector Signal Analyzers in conjunction with Model 2920As. When used in conjunction with the signal personalities provided in SignalMeister software, it is not only capable of generating pure signals but can generate impaired signals for receiver characterization and testing.

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Related terms: bandwidth, communications, electrical, government, software, standards, telecom, weather, wireless