Vector signal generator aids RF characterisation

Engineers now have a complete platform for accelerating RF product design, validation and manufacturing test with National Instruments new 2.7GHz NI PXI-5670 RF vector signal generator.

Engineers now have a complete platform for accelerating RF product design, validation and manufacturing test with National Instruments new 2.7GHz NI PXI-5670 RF vector signal generator.

The new module is the latest addition to the company's RF product line, which also includes the NI PXI-5660 RF vector signal analyser and Modulation Spectral Measurements Toolkits for LabView 7 Express.

The new PXI-5670 module offers true 16bit resolution arbitrary waveform generation at 100Msample/s (400Msample/s interpolated), up to 256Mbyte of memory and 22MHz real-time bandwidth giving engineers a highly precise, flexible vector signal generator with the performance required for rapid prototyping and automated test.

"The NI RF vector signal generator combined with the RF vector signal analyser makes a flexible platform for wireless communication system development", said Professor Robert Heath, Jr, Leading Researcher for the Wireless Networking and Communications Group in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Texas at Austin.

"We have been using the NI vector signal generator, vector signal analyser, Modulation Toolkit and LabView 7 Express for both rapid prototyping of algorithms for multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) 4G wireless systems and for making wireless channel measurements".

The new RF vector signal generator offers signal generation from 250kHz to 2.7GHz and can produce analogue and custom digital modulation as well as standard digital modulation formats such as ASK, FSK, MSK, PSK and QAM.

The module's deep memory of up to 256Mbyte offers extended playback time for complex modulated signals, which addresses research and development needs for simulation of signal transmission in real-world conditions.

This module has advanced timing and triggering capabilities, making it ideal for scientific research, consumer electronics, communications, aerospace/defence and semiconductor test applications.

In addition, the software flexibility of the PXI-5670 module makes it an excellent fit for emerging applications including software defined radio, radio frequency identification (RFID) and wireless sensor networks.

"With the new vector signal generator, engineers can for the first time use one platform from design through manufacturing", said Joseph E Kovacs, NI RF Product Manager.

"Because of the PXI platform and LabView, R and D engineers can link to simulation tools such as Ansoft Designer.

Manufacturing engineers will especially benefit from the speed, compact 3U form factor, high throughput and cost effectiveness of the PXI platform".

The PXI-5670 module includes the NI Modulation Toolkit for LabView 7 Express and the NI-RFSG instrument driver.

The Modulation Toolkit offers functions for signal generation, analysis and visualisation of analogue and digital modulation, both standard and custom.

Some of the standard measurement functions include error vector magnitude (EVM), modulation error ratio (MER) and Rho.

The toolkit also offers functions to inject impairments into a communications system including IQ gain imbalance, quadrature skew and additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN).

Visualisation functions include trellis, constellation and two- and three-dimensional eye diagrams.

NI-RFSG is a fully functional instrument driver and works with a variety of application software including LabView 7 Express, LabWindows/CVI and C.

The NI PXI-5670 RF vector signal generator is a combination of the NI PXI-5610 2.7GHz RF up-convertor, the NI PXI-5421 16bit arbitrary waveform generator and the NI Modulation Toolkit.

Each of these products can be purchased separately.

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