Redefining RF Instrumentation. Jacques Cilliers Application Engineer Certified LabVIEW Developer

Transcription

1 Redefining RF Instrumentation Jacques Cilliers Application Engineer Certified LabVIEW Developer

2 The Test Equipment Challenge In the communication industry, technological innovation occurs at a rapid pace and although this drives the market, the lack of standardization poses a challenge for vendors Test equipment vendors are under constant pressure to keep pace with the latest technology. Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Vijay Mathew

3 Increasing Complexity a/b/g n ac ad CDMA Bluetooth LTE-A EDGE GPS GSM NFC GLONASS RFID LTE WiMAX ZigBee

4 Escalating Complexity Over Time

5 Increasing Standards Coverage Wireless Connectivity Bluetooth Bluetooth EDR BT HS Low- Energy a/b g n ac Cellular and WiMAX GSM (2G) EDGE EDGE+ WCDMA (3G) HSPA HSPA+ HSPA+ Adv WiMAX Mobile WiMAX Wave-2 LTE (4ish G) LTE Advanced

6 The Expectations More Functionality Reduced Cost Smaller Footprint Accelerated Delivery

7 Transistor Count Moore s Law 2,600,000,000 1,000,000, ,000, Intel Xeon 2.6 B transistors 10,000,000 1,000, , processor 6,500 transistors 10,000 2, Date of Introduction

8 1970s Moore s Law Is 2012

9 1970s Moore s Law Is Not 2012

10 1970s Moore s Law for Instrumentation 2012

11 A New Solution Must: Improve on RF specifications Be smaller, faster AND lower cost Integrate multiple functions/instruments Rapidly support evolving wireless standards Meet ALL of the customer s needs (As DEFINED by the CUSTOMER!!!) How do we use Moore s law?

12 Introducing the NI PXIe-5644R The World s First Vector Signal Transceiver

13 Fraction of the Size of Traditional Solutions The World s First Vector Signal Transceiver

14 Early 2000s Traditional Rack and Stack 2007 NI PXI RF Instrumentation 10X Faster Than Traditional 2012 NI PXI Vector Signal Transceiver 200X Faster Than Traditional

15 A New Solution Must Improve on RF specifications Be smaller, faster AND lower cost Integrate multiple functions/instruments Rapidly support evolving wireless standards Meet ALL of the customer s needs (As DEFINED by the CUSTOMER!!!) How do we use Moore s law?

16

17 LabVIEW Reconfigurable I/O (RIO) Architecture Processor Processor FPGA FPGA Analog I/O Digital I/O Motion I/O Custom I/O

18 Software-Designed Instrumentation Completely Open-Source Driver Ensures Ultimate Flexibility The vector signal transceiver is ready to run out of the box, but the driver is written entirely in LabVIEW, giving you direct access to the instruments I/O.

19 Software-Designed Instrumentation Completely Open-Source Driver Ensures Ultimate Flexibility The vector signal transceiver is ready to run out of the box, but the driver is written entirely in LabVIEW, giving you direct access to the instrument s I/O.

20 Software-Designed Instrumentation Frequency Domain Averaging Power Level Servoing Protocol Aware ATE Noise Correction Channel Emulation Software Defined Radio Frequency Triggering Vector Signal Analyzer Test Sequencing DUT Control Vector Signal Generator

21 PXIe-5644R & 5645R 6 GHz Vector Signal Transceiver RF (PXIe-5644R/5645R) Configuration Frequency Range Bandwidth VSA and VSG w/ independent LOs 24 DIO 250 Mbps 65 MHz to 6 GHz 80 MHz Features Programmable FPGA w/ LabVIEW Fast Tuning Mode: <400 μs Baseband (PXIe-5645R only) Configuration Differential Baseband I/Q Input & Output Input/Output 120 MS/s

22 A Closer Look at the PXIe-5644R RF Input 65 MHz 6 GHz 80 MHz BW RF Output 65 MHz 6 GHz 80 MHz BW Reference In/Out Trigger Digital I/O 24 channels Up to 250 Mbps Additional triggering Calibration In/Out Always keep the calibration cable connected LOs In/Out Independent In & Out MIMO Support

23 A Closer Look at the PXIe-5645R

24 EVM (db) Versus Average Output Power Chain Traditional Instrumentation NI PXI Vector Signal Transceiver

25 Soft Front Panels for RF Analysis/Generation Built-in one-button measurements for high- performance RF characterization and debugging View/analyze/generate/save RF CW and modulated signals Analysis Built-in measurements such as TOI, CCDF, ACPR, OBW, channel power, transmit power, and spectral mask Works with NI PXI RF vector signal analyzers (NI PXIe-566x) Generation Quickly generate modulated and continuous wave RF signals Take advantage of built-in modulation schemes such as AM, FM, and PM Sweep amplitude and frequencies using RF list mode Works with NI PXI RF vector signal generators (NI 567x)

26 NI Platform for Software-Defined RF Test GSM/EDGE WCDMA & HSPA+ LTE WiMAX ZigBee RFID WLAN GPS FM/RDS Bluetooth CDMA2000 & EVDO TD-SCDMA

27 GSM/EDGE Measurement Suite Standard Support GSM, EDGE UE and BS testing Software support API for LabVIEW and C/C++ Interactive soft front panels Teststand example sequences Measurement performance Modulation ORFS (GSM): -68 dbc RMS EVM (EDGE): < 0.5%

28 WCDMA/HSPA+ Measurement Suite Standard Support WCDMA, HSPA, and HSPA+ UE and BS testing Software support API for LabVIEW and C/C++ Interactive soft front panels Teststand example sequences Measurement performance ACLR (Uplink): -63 dbc RMS EVM (Uplink): < 0.5%

29 WiMAX Measurement Suites Standard Support Fixed WiMAX (802.16d) Mobile WiMAX (802.16e-2005) Software support API for LabVIEW and C/C++ Interactive soft front panels Measurement performance RMS EVM (EDGE): > -45 db 3x to 5x Faster than Traditional Instruments

30 WLAN Measurement Suite Standard Support IEEE a/b/g/n MCS 0-31 for n Software support API for LabVIEW and C/C++ Interactive soft front panels Measurement performance RMS EVM (EDGE): -45 db 3x to 10x Faster than Traditional Instruments

31 GPS Simulation Toolkit Standard Support GPS C/Code Generation (L1) Support for WAAS generation Waypoint and trajectory mode Software support API for LabVIEW and C/C++ Interactive example programs Measurement capabilities Sensitivity Time to first fix (TTFF)

32 Summary Industry Leading Measurement Speed Flexible HW and SW Multi-standard support Digital to RF generation/analysis Design Validation to Manufacturing test R&D Grade Comparable accuracy to mid-grade traditional instruments Better measurements at lower cost.