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Programming Console

Wide bandwidth RF Power Analysis Solution

We supply a custom-made RF power analysis solution that supports a wide bandwidth by utilizing a commercially available relatively low cost ADC board or Oscilloscope.
Key measurements:
  • CCDF of Wideband signal
  • RMS & Peak power
  • Burst signal power and timing such as Rising, Fall, Duration and so on
  • Phase difference in case of 2 channel version
Power Analysis with Scope.png
Overview
CCDF is a very useful measurement item for checking the saturation of a signal passing through an RF amplifier or mixer, especially a modulated signal with a large peak to average ratio.

However, since 5G, as the bandwidth of wireless communication signals has increased significantly, the cost of signal analyzers has also increased a lot due to the wider required analysis bandwidth. This is due to the characteristics of a signal analyzer that must maintain a maximum vertical resolution while supporting a wide analysis bandwidth for EVM measurement. 5G NR Sub-6 (below 6 GHz), which has a relatively narrow bandwidth, also has a bandwidth of up to 500 MHz, and FR2 is approximately 1 GHz. For 6G, it is expected to require several GHz of bandwidth.

This increase in bandwidth requires an expensive high-end signal analyzer even for CCDF measurement, which requires an analysis bandwidth equal to that of the signal bandwidth. The increase in cost due to the broader bandwidth also serves as a cause of supply and demand problems of the measurement equipment.

Other than the signal analyzers, RF Peak Power Meters can also be used for CCDF measurement, and most of the power meters on the market have an analysis bandwidth of less than 100 MHz according to the effective sampling rate. Therefore, the CCDF of a signal with a bandwidth greater than that cannot be accurately measured. If the analysis bandwidth is smaller than the signal bandwidth, the CCDF is measured low. In addition, since the power meter is an RF power detector method, it samples the envelope of the signal output from the detector, so there is a limitation that only the amplitude can be measured.
Power Analysis solution consists of:
  • Software for the power analysis
It controls the digitizer and downconverter, and perform Power Analysis.
  • Digitizer
PCIe ADC board or Oscilloscope for sampling the IF signal.​
  • Wideband Block Downconverter​
It translate frequency of the input signal to the IF frequency.​
PC Power Analysis software
​​It controls the digitizer and RF downconverter, acquires signal data in the measurement frequency band, and processes it to perform RF power measurement and signal analysis. You can set up the digitizer and RF downconverter and proceed with measurement through the GUI as shown in the figure below.
Power Analysis with Scope.png
The software can also be modified to suit user needs: 
If your oscilloscope or ADC board is not compatible with the current standard software, or if you need to add new functions for actual application, we could modify the software upon your requirements.

PC Analysis Software supports various functions as below for ease of use and usability.
  • Provides various graphs to visually check signals
  • Measurement time span selection function helps user to measure signals of short duration at ease.
  • Automatic measurement section selection function convenient for CCDF measurement of TDD signals
  • Save the signal data with user configured type and format for review and further analysis
  • Extract signal data in the selected frequency-time domain
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