RF&WirelessBlog

Low-cost broadband signal analysers come in three flavours

Aeroflex’s new family of three low cost broadband signal analysers locate, record, and analyse complex communications signals for commercial, military, and aerospace applications. According to Aeroflex, these products incorporate a longer contiguous record time and solve a wider array of difficult problems more quickly than competitive products. The new signal analyser product family consists of a portable signal analyser, the Aeroflex Scout CS1104, and two rack-mountable signal analysers, the Aeroflex Hunter CS1207 and the Aeroflex Explorer CS1247.

Teseq acquires Milmega to expand RF PA capability

Teseq has acquired UK-based Milmega, Ltd., a specialist in the design and manufacture of solid state, high-power microwave and RF amplifiers. Established in 1987, Milmega designs and manufactures high power amplifiers for commercial and government applications. The company’s core strength lies in the development of broadband RF power amplifiers operating in a frequency range from 80 MHz to 8 GHz with power levels to 1 kW. 

China Mobile tests TD-LTE with T&M equipment from Rohde & Schwarz

China Mobile is using Rohde & Schwarz’s CMW500 wideband radio communications tester from for TD-LTE testing. China Mobile uses the equipment in its Research Institute labs to perform RF tests on user equipment for time division LTE (TD-LTE).   
The R&S CMW500 from Rohde & Schwarz is a highly flexible wideband radio communications tester that supports all common wireless communications standards in a single box. It is suitable for all phases in the development and production of chipsets and mobile wireless devices as well as for lab tests by network operators.   

Agilent and Lime create new method for testing advanced wireless systems

Agilent Technologies and Lime Microsystems have announced a custom pairing of test equipment, transceiver technology and control software that constitutes a new method for testing and evaluating advanced wireless systems. The evaluation platform, which includes a suite of test equipment and software, saves today’s digital and software-defined radio designers development time and cuts optimisation cycles, helping to speed new products to market.

Test software for circuit-switched voice in LTE released

Anritsu has released new software for users of its MT8820C Radio Communication Analyser to test the CS Fallback function on LTE smartphones and mobile terminals. The MX882012C-016 LTE FDD CS Fallback to W-CDMA/GSM software package is an all-in-one solution for evaluating the CS Fallback function of multimode LTE terminals.

Renesas Mobile and Anritsu deliver first MIMO Test cases approved by 3GPP

Renesas Mobile and Anritsu have developed and validated MIMO test cases which have been accepted by 3GPP (RAN5). Whilst MIMO has been available in the networks and some initial products are available, there have been no official certification requirements in place to ensure interoperability and consistency of the benefits of MIMO technology. With this approval, product acceptance by the mobile industry and operators can be put on a firmer footing, which is essential as we move into wider market deployment of MIMO technology.

The main benefits of MIMO technology are in bringing an improved user experience, from increased throughput, and higher network capacity for the operator.

The Renesas Mobile modem team created many of the 3GPP test cases at Nokia, working closely with Anritsu. Anritsu is the first test system manufacturer that has implemented and validated the data and signalling MIMO test cases.

“Our industry leading collaboration in certification has been a core focus of our approach to product development since our days as part of Nokia Wireless Modem,” said Heikki Tenhunen, Senior Vice President Renesas Mobile. “Our customers see the benefit through faster product approvals and the operators gain assurance on the quality and maturity of the resulting handsets.“

“Collaborating with leading modem teams has meant that we have been able to be the first to introduce cutting edge and complicated test cases,” added Mike Lee, R&D director, Anritsu. “Anritsu’s flexible and fully featured systems allow the industry to prove the compliance of new features such as MIMO and expedite its delivery by chipset manufacturers.”

TRaC offers latest ZigBee SE 1.1 testing with zero delay following standard's formalisation

European test house TRaC has announced that within days of the release of the latest version of the ZigBee wireless data standard for Smart Energy products, it has already concluded a comprehensive product test programme for a leading European manufacturer. TRaC says it is currently the only test house in Europe ready and able to carry out this test programme – and one of only a select few sites world-wide.

Anritsu adds 26.5 and 43GHz models to its MS2830A series

Anritsu has added 26.5GHz and 43GHz models to its series of MS2830A vector signal analysers. Until now, the previous models introduced in 2010 covered the 3.6GHz, 6GHz and 13.5GHz bands. Anritsu says the two latest MS2830A models now meet the need for measurements in the microwave bands, either using the spectrum analyser’s standard function or with the optional function of the signal analyser as well as having all the available power of the built-in FFT tool. Application fields such as digital satellite and terrestrial transmissions and microwave radar measurements can now be covered.

Goepel Electronic supports Picochip in testing small cell baseband chips

Goepel Electronic has developed special VarioTAP IP for testing the new generation of femtocell chips in cooperation with Picochip. The solution enables dynamic processor emulation tests (PET) for fault detection and diagnostic on board and system level, as well as supporting embedded Flash programming.  

Anritsu Signalling Tester evaluates multimode LTE smartphones

Anritsu’s new MD8475A Signalling Tester is aimed at multimode smartphone and mobile terminals which support high-speed LTE communications system as well as being suitable for chipset and mobile telecom operator acceptance testing. The MD8475A also operates as a base station simulator supporting both 2G and 3G GSM/GPRS/EGPRS, W-CDMA/HSPA and CDMA2000 1x/1x EVDO technologies.