TEST & MEASUREMENT APPLICATION NOTES AND WHITE PAPERS

  • Directivity And VSWR Measurements: Understanding Return Loss Measurements

    The characterization of microwave networks requires discriminating between forward and backward traveling waves. Unfortunately no directional device is perfect, leading to potentially dramatic measurement errors. In this note we show that return loss and VSWR measurements are greatly complicated by the finite performance of the directional device used to measure the reflected power.

  • Basic Bulk Current Injection Testing

    Bulk current injection (BCI) testing is a conducted susceptibility procedure that uses an injection current probe. This paper provides an example of BCI testing, covering all steps, including gathering the required equipment, pre-calibration procedures, injection testing procedures, and safety precautions.

  • Understanding Component EMC Testing for ICs

    If you're producing integrated circuit (IC) products for electromagnetic environments, you must test and pass all the regulatory electromagnetic interference (EMI) and safety requirements. Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing is performed to ensure these components can be used in the intended environment without failing, degrading, or causing other equipment to fail.

  • Wi-Fi Performance In A House With Two Routers

    Wireless InSite’s Communication System Analyzer provides capabilities for assessing the performance of LTE, WiMAX, 802.11n, and 802.11ac systems. This example investigates WiFi throughput coverage in a house provided by 802.11ac routers operating at 5 GHz using an 80 MHz bandwidth.

  • VSWR Conversion To Reflected Power

    VSWR measures how efficiently RF power is transmitted through a load, with high VSWR indicating poor efficiency. Explore VSWR's relation to return loss, reflection coefficient, and mismatch loss.

TEST & MEASUREMENT SOLUTIONS

Electrostatic discharge testing is utilized worldwide by electronics manufacturers to determine the ESD susceptibility of their devices. It is extremely difficult to estimate the exact cost of ESD loss annually, but it can safely be stated that ESD requires the development and testing of many hardware prototypes and contributes to a high number of warranty claims and loss of consumer confidence if failure occurs in the hands of the customer. Given the high cost in time and materials associated with ESD hardware testing, the ability to simulate the ESD testing process in XFdtd is extremely valuable, allowing engineers to pinpoint locations susceptible to ESD damage and optimize ESD mitigation during the concept and design stage of product development.

Pentek offers the Talon® RTX 2684 as a 26 GHz sentinel intelligent signal scanner recording system. The system provides SIGINT engineers the ability to scan the RF spectrum from 1 GHz to 26 GHz for signals of interest and monitor or record bandwidths up to 500 MHz wide.

The dB-9001 from dB Control is a custom-mounted Instantaneous Frequency Measurement (IFM) unit designed to operate in the C, X, and Ku-band frequency range and provide highly accurate measurements at 100 ns to CW pulse width measurements.

The Si894x is a galvanically isolated delta-sigma modulator which outputs a digital signal proportional to the voltage level at the input. 

The Microwave VME/VXS Tuner by Hunter Technology is the industry’s smallest available microwave SIGINT VME tuner. It covers the 500 MHz-20.0 GHz and 30.0 GHz to 40.0 GHz frequency ranges and features incredibly fast tuning, low phase noise, excellent mechanical conductivity, a single slot 6U VME configuration, and much more.

The dB-3906 TWT Amplifier (TWTA) is designed to use two wideband, periodic permanent magnet (PPM)-focused TWTs to amplify CW, AM, FM or pulse-modulated signals. The dB-3906 offers higher saturated output power and improved harmonic performance when compared to a single TWT approach.

dB Control’s family of traveling wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs) features a combined frequency range of 2 to 18 GHz up to 15kW output power. dB Control utilizes our proprietary transformer fabrication, encapsulation and high-voltage potting techniques developed for demanding military applications which results in superior reliability, low cost and ease of maintenance.  Products in this series are ideal for several applications, including: test and measurement, electronic warfare (EW) simulation, RFI/EMI/EMC Testing, electronic countermeasures (ECM), and antenna pattern and radar-cross section measurements.

Producing a system that excels in performance and reliability is easy when you have System Design and Applications Engineers with years of experience, Customer Service with global reach, and products that are known for performance and quality. AR has this very organization and product offerings. AR is here for you at each step to ensure that the system design, integration, and support of your EMC or RF system complies with your goals.