News and New Products

Network analyzer for active-device test adds 13.5-, 43.5-, and 50-GHz models

By Dan Strassberg, Contributing Technical Editor -- EDN, 6/1/2009

Agilent Technologies has added 13.5-, 43.5-, and 50-GHz models of its PNA-X network analyzer. The 43.5- and 50-GHz models support high-frequency applications, such as radar and satellite communications, whereas the 13.5-GHz model handles low-frequency devices in wireless communications. The company has also added 13.5-, 43.5-, and 50-GHz models of its PNA-X NVNA (nonlinear-vector-network analyzer). The range of these new products provides engineers who develop and manufacture active devices the flexibility to select the right instrument bandwidth for each application.

Aerospace and defense engineers who work on systems with frequencies as high as 50 GHz can now benefit from Agilent’s single-connection, multiple-measurement PNA-X. This analyzer’s integrated measurements, versatile hardware, and reconfigurable measurement paths address this market’s key challenges: test-system costs, test complexity, throughput, accuracy, and equipment-space requirements. Typical radar, satellite, and electronic-warfare applications require complex test systems that occupy multiple instrument racks and require numerous connections to the device under test. The PNA-X integrates the capabilities of a full rack of equipment into a single instrument, simplifying test stations, halving the number of instruments, and increasing throughput fourfold. The PNA-X also offers a single-contact approach to wafer tests. By eliminating multiple probe contacts and enabling the most accurate characterization and reliable wire-bonding, this approach significantly improves the quality of the devices produced. Moreover, engineers working on systems with frequencies greater than 50 GHz can use the PNA-X to configure a banded millimeter-wave system that operates to 0.5 THz.

The 13.5-GHz PNA-X model supports wireless communications, in which reduced test time, number of test stations, and test cost are critical. Low-noise-amplifier tests typically require separate test stations for such characteristics as small-signal gain/match, distortion, and noise figure; the PNA-X integrates these tests into one station, thereby reducing the number of stations by as much as 75% and costs by 30%.

According to Agilent, the NVNA is the first measurement-and-simulation environment for designing nonlinear components, and it provides the greatest possible insight into nonlinear-device behavior. The NVNA proves especially useful for scientists who research new RF technologies and engineers who design high-performance active devices. Using NVNA, you measure X parameters and then use them to create models that you can import into Agilent’s ADS (Advanced Design System) to simulate the behavior of linear and nonlinear physical components.

The configurable two- or four-port network analyzer uses a single connection for measurements of continuous-wave and pulsed scattering parameters, compression, IMD (intermodulation distortion), and noise figure. Two built-in high-performance sources offer output power of 16 dBm, harmonics of −60 dBc, and a power-sweep range of 40 dB. A wide range of measurement applications for amplifiers, converters, and modules with linear and nonlinear characteristics includes vector-noise figure, gain compression, IMD, true-differential measurements, and NVNA. Internal signal-routing switches provide increased flexibility for adding signal-conditioning hardware or additional test equipment for single-connection measurements. Internal pulse modulators and generators for fast, simplified pulse measurements permit making these measurements in 1/30 of the time necessary with analyzers that require external generators and modulators.

Prices for PNA-X start at $76,400 for a 10-MHz to 13.5-GHz unit and extend to $140,100 for a 10-MHz to 50-GHz unit. The previously announced 26.5-GHz model will continue to be available. Prices for NVNA options start at $37,400. A 50-GHz comb generator, which acts as a phase reference for the NVNA, adds $16,000.