More functions, greater processing power and growing data rates make high-speed system-on-chips (SoCs) power designs challenging. The increasing number of power rails that supply the various function blocks of modern CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, ASICs and such require precise sequencing during power-up and powerdown. Supply voltage levels are also lowered to reduce power dissipation inside the SoC. Power integrity requirements are stricter and more supply current is needed on power rails. Multiphase buck converters continue to grow more popular for high-current power rails. The converters have many benefits, but designers also face challenges when it comes to power design and validation testing.

13-Jan-2025

Crucial for proper operation of mobile networks. Part 4 of the series on Cable and Antenna verification

Critical Infrastructure: Mobile base stations rely on a complex interplay of components, including often-overlooked elements like filter combiners, RF splitters and tappers, and cables, to deliver uninterrupted mobile communications.Vulnerability to Environmental Factors: Filter combiners, accessories, and cabling in mobile base stations are susceptible to harsh environmental stressors, which can lead to signal degradation and reduced system availability.Fundamental Properties: The functional integrity of mobile base station components is measured against key RF parameters, including frequency response and insertion loss, to ensure conformance to manufacturer and industry standards (e.g., 3GPP, ETSI).Measurement Techniques: Systematic and comprehensive testing is essential to validate the functional integrity of critical mobile base station components, detect latent defects, and optimize overall system performance.

09-Jan-2025 | AN-No. 8NT20

Most of the tests specified in standard TS 34.121 [1] for 3GPP Rel-5 can be performed with R&S®CMU200. This document provides a step by step guide on how to perform Rel-5 measurements on transmitter characteristics, receiver characteristics and performance tests according to TS 34.121 V8.7.0 clauses 5, 6 and 9 with standalone R&S®CMU200. Test cases that require additional instruments, e.g. fading generator (R&S®SMU200A or R&S®AMU200A) will be discussed in brief in this application note with recommended reference. A set of *.sav files based on R&S®CMU200 firmware V5.03 for UE supporting operating band I with power class 3 in RMC 12.2 kbps + HSDPA is attached to this application note.

13-Oct-2009 | AN-No. 1CM72

Antennas have become an integral part of consumer electronics, even in small portable devices that rely on an energy source with limited capacity. Consequently, antennas need to be physically small and power efficient.

05-Mar-2020

In the satellite sector, components, subsystems and entire satellites must be qualified in a thermal vacuum chamber before they can be used in space. This qualification proves that equipment can not only survive but also function in the harsh conditions encountered during launch and in space.

05-Oct-2022

Remote control of test and measurement equipment with a serial interface is limited to PC’s located in close proximity determined by the length of a typical serial cable connection (several feet). Usage of terminal server allows connecting through LAN or WAN networks thus controlling the instrument from further away even around the globe. The terminal server interfaces between TCP/IP protocol and the RS232 line. This application describes set-up of a popular terminal server from Black Box® Corporation to remotely and conveniently control the instruments EFA with EFA Scan software and DVRM or DVMD with Realtime Monitor / Stream Explorer software through a LAN or WAN network.

07-Jul-2003 | AN-No. 7BM41

This Application Note gives 10 useful Tips & Tricks for the users of Rohde & Schwarz attribute-based instrument drivers. It is recommended for the first-time LabVIEW users as well as for the experienced programmers.

30-Jan-2017 | AN-No. 1MA228

The audio performance measurement solution for the R&S®CMW500 platform identifies audio and speech performance issues over a wireless connection.

26-Aug-2017

This application note and associated application software may be used to conduct psychoacoustic speech quality evaluation for Voice over LTE (VoLTE) connections. The measurements are based on recommendations ITU-T P.862 and ITU-T P.863, respectively.

21-Feb-2014 | AN-No. 1MA204

R&S®CMWcards is an intuitive and user-friendly software application that makes NB-IoT OTDOA positioning design verification easier than ever.

26-Nov-2018

Vector network analyzers are used in high frequency applications to measure the complex scattering parameters of an unknown device-under-test (DUT). In general, the DUT characteristics can be evaluated by using electromagnetic waves. The correlation between the incident, reflected and transmitted wave quantities at the DUT is defined by its scattering matrix S.

28-Jul-1998 | AN-No. 1EZ30

The aim of channel sounding is to characterize a radio channel by decomposing the radio propagation path into its individual multipath components. This application note provided by Neul describes how channel sounding can be performed using the R&S SMBV100A Vector Signal Generator and the R&S FSL Spectrum Analyzer. To illustrate the procedure reference is made to 8 MHz wide white space channels in the UK.

13-Jul-2011 | AN-No. 1MA199

An error in DVB-T2 signal feed to the transmitter can cause failure of the entire DVB-T2 network. For this reason, the established ETSI TR 101 290 DVB measurement guidelines have been expanded to include measurements for the new T2-MI interface. The instruments of the R&S®DVMS family monitor T2-MI signals by performing these newly defined measurements and even provide in-depth analysis of these signals.

01-Sep-2011

Analyze near-field signals and reduce electromagnetic interference (EMI) on boards and modules with the R&S®SpectrumRider FPH and the R&S®HZ-15 near-field probes.

27-Jun-2016

DOCSIS has become the established standard for return channels when it comes to implementing interactive services in broadband cable networks. The quality of these signals is essential to network efficiency. The analysis can be done using the highprecision R&S®ETL, R&S®EFA and R&S®FSH3-TV TV test receivers that have proven themselves in the downstream. These T & M instruments can be quickly and easily configured for measuring the upstream.

13-Jul-2012

Today’s infotainment units offer a wide range of features to truly embody the concept of the connected car.

14-Jun-2018

Wireless coexistence testing

11-May-2020

A step by step HOW TO guide to perform manual and automated wireless coexistence testing

At the end of the year 2020, there were over 20 Billion internet of things (IoT) products in the world operating using the licensed and unlicensed frequency bands. This growth trend is projected to keep steady over the coming years as more and more people adopt to a smarter and more connected lifestyle. This will result in a much busier and challenging RF environment than the one we have today. In order to understand the complexity of the RF spectrum, a white paper was published in 2021 from Rohde & Schwarz, which featured RF spectrum activity at multiple locations observed at different times of the day. The locations were selected based on population densities and the amount of known RF transmitters & their frequencies at those locations. It was also concluded that the ISM bands on average have higher channel utilization since most IoT devices take advantage of the unlicensed spectrum. The paper recommended, that while performing wireless coexistence testing, the test conditions should reflect the operational RF environment that the device is intended to operate in. Otherwise, the characterization of RF performance would only reflect ideal case which doesn’t exist in real world operation. Since it is not always possible to test all devices in the real world, relevant test methodologies need to be setup to replicate the real world as much as possible.This will help us get a better understanding of how the receiver of the RF device will behave under different RF conditions. It is also recommended to perform measurements in order to understand the behavior of the device in the future when the spectrum will get even more challenging. Therefore, a through characterization of the capability of the RF receiver to handle in-band and out-of-band interference signals in also of interest.In terms of regulatory compliance requirements for ensuring wireless coexistence performance, the ANSI C63.27 is currently the only published test standard that provides guidance on how to perform coexistence testing on devices. The test complexity is based up on risk imposed on the user’s health in the event of a failure caused by an or a plurality of interference signal. The standard also gives device manufacturers guidance regarding test setups, measurement environments, interference signal types and strategy, performance quality measurement parameters for physical layer using key performance indicator (KPI) and application layer parameters for end-to-end functional wireless performance (FWP).In this application note, the guidance provided by the ANSI C63.27-2021 version regarding test setup, measurement parameter and interference signal have been followed. It will give the reader a clear idea on how to configure standardized test instruments from R&S in order to generate the wanted signal as well as unintended interference signals and conduct measurement to monitor device performance in terms of PER, ping latency and data throughput.This application note provides step-by-step instruction on how to perform measurements using conducted and radiated methodology. Both manual and automated instrument configuration approach is explained in this document.The automation scripts are written using python scripting language and are available for download with this application note, free of charge. Official required to run the scripts are available on the PYPI database.

10-Nov-2022 | AN-No. 1SL392

DVB-T Bursted Noise is a tool for generation of DVB-T compatible noise signals. The IQ data can tranferred to WinIQSIM™ / WinIQSIM2™ for further processing and transmission to an AMU, AFQ, AMIQ, SMU, SMIQ.

08-Jul-2009 | AN-No. 1MA51

automotive radar echo generator, AREG100A, automotive radar sensors Automotive radar sensors are safety-relevant and have to be comprehensively tested for reliable functioning. The R&S ® AREG100A automotive radar echo generator is a versatile instrument for stimulating radars in the 24 GHz ISM band and in the 77 GHz and 79 GHz frequency bands. Together with the R&S ® ATS1500A shielded chamber, it offers

06-Aug-2018

The Application Note summarises all measurements for WLAN test, according to the IEEE Standards 802.11a, b and g. For each measurement, an instrument list, test setups, test method, comments, typical results and implementation hints are included. The enclosed free of charge software provides all IEEE 488 bus sequences ready to run or copy into your own test environment.

28-Jul-2004 | AN-No. 1MA69

Many measurements in audio applications have to be monitored for compliance with specified limit values. Therefore, sometimes a whole series of measurements have to be compared with a fixed limit value, in other case it might be necessary to define different tolerances for example for different frequency ranges. Both can be done using Audio Analyzer UPD or UPL. This application note covers the different possibilities of limit checking, it demonstrates how to edit limit files and presents a program to easily generate files for checking the limits of frequency response measurements. Furthermore the display modes for different kinds of references are explained.

04-Jun-1998 | AN-No. 1GA33

In the T&M world, instrument remote control over SNMP (simple network management protocol) lives in the shadow of IEEE/GPIB (general purpose interface bus) based remote control, and only a handful of the T&M equipment available worldwide supports the protocol. It is therefore no surprise that for most T&M engineers familiar with text-based commands over IEEE/GPIB (and lately LAN), the SNMP protocol seems a bit odd and to some even complex at first. The SNMP Toolkit for LabVIEW™ from Viodia™ Inc. can save a considerable amount of development time and furthermore helps programmers to overcome the initial complexities of SNMP programming.

18-Oct-2007 | AN-No. 7BM70

FSH4Remote is a free-of-charge program for connecting the R&S®FSH4/8 handheld spectrum analyzer or the R&S®FSC spectrum analyzer to a remote computer, and for providing remote control of the functions from the computer. It runs under Windows and Linux operating systems. This application note describes the easy use of FSH4Remote to control the R&S®FSH/FSC and read the trace.

09-Feb-2012 | AN-No. 1MA180

This application note describes remote operation or monitoring of the signal and spectrum analyzers R&S® FSV3, R&S® FSV7, R&S® FSV13, R&S® FSV30 through a standard web browser. The common cross-platform technology Virtual Network Computing (VNC) is used as a server on the instrument.

15-Jan-2009 | AN-No. 1EF67

This White Paper describes the implementation of real-time capabilities within the R&S®FSW (with option K160R) and the R&S®FSVR. It shows fields of application as well as the technical implementation.

20-Mar-2015 | AN-No. 1EF77

This R&S®CMU200 1xEV-DO Release B non-signaling testing application provides the means to allow users to perform RF measurements on a 1xEV-DO Rel. B access terminal in a mode that does not require any signaling. This allows the calibration and final tests of a Rel. B AT, according to the minimum performance standards with the R&S®CMU200.

29-Jun-2009 | AN-No. 1CM74

This Application Note gives an introduction to measurements of WiMAX signals according to standards 80216-2004 and 802.16e-2005. It describes all kind of signal generation from simple signals to multiple-zone signals, also under multipath environment (fading), and covers all signal measurements from power and spectrum analysis, crest factor and CCDF measurement down to bit pattern analysis and modulation measurements.Please see also 1MA96 for General information about the WiMAX standard and 1EF57 for an introduction to the WiMAX standard.

10-Jul-2006 | AN-No. 1MA97

This document describes how a Windows®-based R&S® T&M instrument is remotely operated by an Apple iPad as if working on it locally. Step-by-step procedures are provided for setting up and configuring the T&M instrument and the iPad. On the iPad, a special App implements the Windows® 'Remote Desktop' functionality. T&M instrument and iPad are connected via WLAN (also denoted as Wi-Fi network).

28-Mar-2013 | AN-No. 1MA216

Software tool for fast and repeatable optimization of signal analyzer RF front-end settings

The signal conditioning in the RF front-end of signal analyzers is crucial to achieve the best performance with respect to image-suppression, noise-floor, dynamic range and other RF-key parameters.Precise signal levelling is especially important for complex measurements like Error-Vector-Magnitude (EVM). To minimize the measurement uncertainty from test system contributions over a wide range of different levels, the RF front-end needs to be adapted continuously according to the signal characteristics, signal power and frequency - ideally using an automatic levelling algorithm.This document describes the approach of a waveform specific, on-site characterization of the signal analyzer: For each waveform and frequency of interest, the instrument is evaluated in a first step. With this additional data, a fast and repeatable auto-levelling can be performed during the actual measurement.

24-Jan-2022 | AN-No. 1EF111