We hear it across industries time and time again: the demand for higher data throughput with lower latency. Wideband modulation offers a promising solution, but it’s not without drawbacks — it comes with a significant increase in noise, introducing test complexity and measurement uncertainty.
Yet MiSic Microelectronics, a provider of sensors for automotive radar and consumer electronics, is tackling that problem head-on for its microwave devices and components by employing two products from design and validation solution provider Keysight Technologies: S930705B modulation distortion software running on the N5245B PNA-X Microwave Network Analyzer.
The PNA-X family of network analyzers, like the N5245B above, can run modulation distortion software to provide a complete picture of device performance without test system interference. Source: Keysight TechnologiesAccording to a press release from Keysight, MiSic is using a single test setup to make microwave device measurements with extremely low residual error vector magnitude (EVM), providing a complete picture of device performance without test system interference. As Keysight explains, the S930705B provides nonlinear device under test (DUT) behaviors such as EVM, noise power ratio (NPR) and adjacent channel power ratio (ACPR) under modulated stimulus conditions. This translates to excellent signal fidelity and accurate modulated measurements at 5G, 6G, microwave and millimeter wave frequencies.
“Keysight gives us a cost-effective test solution that provides us with highly accurate measurements by eliminating system noise and interference,” said MiSic general manager Debin Hou. “The single test setup allows complete characterization of an amplifier that would have taken two separate test stations or the use of a complex and expensive switching matrix.”
Keysight adds that the modulation distortion solution provides MiSic with “the right mix of speed and measurement integrity to gain a deeper understanding of its designs and accelerate its research and development workflow. As an integrated solution, it eliminates the need for an entire rack of test of equipment and reduces the cost of device development and validation.”
This is, of course, just one effective deployment of the PNA-X family of network analyzers, which Keysight describes as “the world’s most integrated and flexible microwave test engine for measuring active devices such as amplifiers, mixers, and frequency converters.” Included with the N5245B model are two internal signal sources, a signal combiner, S-parameter and noise receivers, pulse modulators and generators, and a set of switches and RF access points. A detailed technical overview of S93070xB modulation distortion for the PNA-X is available here.
