TEST & MEASUREMENT APPLICATION NOTES AND WHITE PAPERS

  • Technical Report: Simulation Of Plasma Materials In XFdtd

    This paper discusses the FDTD method to simulate the behavior of plasma materials using Remcom’s XFdtd 3D EM Simulation Software and presents validation in one and three dimensions.

  • Circuit Models For Plastic Packaged Microwave Diodes

    This paper reports on the measurement and establishment of circuit models for SOT-23 and SOD-323 packaged diodes. Results indicate that the 1.5 nH estimate for the SOT-23 is a useful result, as is 1.2 nH for SOD-323 single packaged diodes. It was also determined that the effective inductance of the SOT-23 may be reduced to approximately 0.4 nH by adding a second bond wire and modifying the microstrip line. Other lead configurations, including parallel bond wires and common cathode configurations, were also studied.

  • 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.

  • Certium VCS Test System For Aircraft Manufacturers

    New aircraft need to have their radiocommunication systems tested with compact voice communication systems like CERTIUM VCS. This is cost-effective, space-saving, and scalable thanks to its IP-based infrastructure.

  • 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.

TEST & MEASUREMENT SOLUTIONS

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.

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.

XF leverages the EM principle of superposition to quickly analyze port phase combinations with a single simulation.

Holzworth’s multi-channel RF synthesizer architecture is a complete success story. These compact, 1U high, 19in rack mountable chassis can be configured with up to 8 independently tunable channels. All integrated channels are 100% phase coherent. Holzworth has designed the multi-channel platform for integration of our HSM Series Single Channel Synthesizers to maximize channel-to-channel stability via a conductively cooled, fan-less enclosure.

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.

Qorvo introduces the QPC2040 single-pole, double-throw (SPDT) switch operating within the 8 – 12 GHz frequency range for commercial and military radar, communications, electronic warfare, test instrumentation, and other general purpose applications. The switch typically supports 10 W input power handling at control voltages of 0/−2 V for both CW and pulsed RF operations.

The RFvision-3 is a tunable ultra-wideband spectrum processing solution designed for 1 GHz bandwidth RF spectrum recording with advanced pulse processing. This rack-mount (3U) system is based on the DTA-9590W ultra-wideband tuner and DTA-5000 RAID server with 24 TB SSDs. It operates from 500 MHz to 18 GHz (expandable up to 40 GHz) and features 100 MHz instantaneous bandwidth.

Bird offers the FH-AV-KIT, a FlightHawk™ RF Aviation Test Kit designed for avionics testing and measurement applications. This kit includes a proven antenna and cable testing functionality of the FlightHawk handheld analyzer, all necessary adapters and cabling, and Bird’s aviation testing software that allows anyone on the maintenance team to test and verify all antenna systems in a fleet.