Agilent Technologies has introduced software for its ESG and PSG vector signal generators that ensures a very high quality of signals for testing radar, ultra wideband communications and third-generation wireless power amplifiers. Agilent says its N7622A Signal Studio toolkit is the first commercial product that provides error-correction capabilities at modulation bandwidths as high as 800 MHz.
Designers of commercial and military communications and radar systems need to evaluate performance by exposing their systems and subsystems to signals that accurately reflect actual signal conditions. To accomplish this, they typically create and send I/Q waveform signals to an arbitrary waveform generator (ARB), which converts them to analog signals. These signals are then fed to the I/Q modulator of a signal generator, which outputs them at the desired carrier frequency.
Ideally, RF signals at the signal generator's output have exactly the same amplitude flatness, phase and group delay as the original I/Q waveforms. However, as the signal passes through the signal translation and upconversion chains, distortion inevitably occurs that degrades these characteristics. Waveform distortion is somewhat manageable in narrowband systems with modulation bandwidths in the tens of megahertz, but it dramatically increases in severity as bandwidth increases. In some radar and UWB systems with RF bandwidths of 500 MHz or more, the distortions are major impediments to accurate component, subsystem and system evaluation.
According to Agilent its Signal Studio toolkit can remove the distortion errors before they are output from the signal generator to the device under test. Previously, designers had a choice of either not removing the errors or creating their own custom system with varying degrees of success and potentially high measurement uncertainty. Signal Studio toolkit eliminates these concerns by accurately correcting errors that occur in the signal path so that test signal characteristics are nearly indistinguishable from the original I/Q waveform.
Radar system designers benefit from Agilent's Signal Studio toolkit's ability to expand spurious-free dynamic range through improved image rejection. Signal Studio toolkit also enhances flatness, linearity and EVM for modulated pulses such as 'FM chirps' and 'phase coded' pulses.
The standard components of Agilent's Signal Studio toolkit include Windows-based software that translates waveforms created with MATLAB or other common waveform-design environments to a format compatible with the ARB in Agilent's ESG and PSG vector signal generators. Agilent's Signal Studio toolkit also provides the ability to download signals to an external ARB to achieve higher RF bandwidths up to 800 MHz.
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