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Learn how to configure Rohde & Schwarz products to fit your application. Search our database by product, technology, or application to find relevant technical documents.
Search Application Notes & Cards
Learn how to configure Rohde & Schwarz products to fit your application. Search our database by product, technology, or application to find relevant technical documents.
735 Results
In general, most of the existing electronic devices are connected to the AC mains and require a power conversion stage to convert the AC-Voltage to a smaller DC-Voltage. Voltages and frequencies of the power grid differ between different regions. However, different types of AC-DC conversion stages exist to supply the electronic equipment with adequate DC-power.In AC-DC conversion combined with power levels less than 50W, the flyback converter is a commonplace chosen topology because of its simplicity and its low cost. The majority of consumer products make use of this converter type like wall brick power supplies or power adapters for any consumer application and other type of stand-by auxiliary power supply like used in white and brown goods. In AC to DC converter application, an electrical isolation between input and output is mandatory. The flyback topology provides this galvanic barrier.Beside the common advantages of a flyback converter, it has inherently parasitic components, which typically produce ringing waveforms with considerably high voltage spikes. Without suppressing this unwanted ringing, it may have some negative effect on other components like the switching elements. This ringing can also influence the EMI emissions adversely. Therefore, it is an important task to adequate suppress and damp the ringing effect. This damping circuit is known as snubber circuit and provides this functionality. In the flyback converter, different snubber structures can be applied and each of the structure has its advantage and disadvantage.The demand having a snubber circuit in the power supply topology leads to specific verification methods during the design to obtain a proper and reliable design. These verification methods are the main focus of the discussions within this document.
23-Jun-2021 | AN-No. 1SL363
5G is the fifth generation of wireless communication technology supporting cellular networks. From GSM (2G) through to LTE (4G), each generation addresses technical challenges not overcome by its predecessor. As with previous generations, 5G requires new mobile devices and new base stations (BTS).Unlike previous generations, the use of radio beams in 5G requires completely new approaches with regard to the compliance, coverage, and quality of service testing.The new air interface is called 5G NR ("new radio"). This application note describes the measurement challenges of 5G NR and makes clear the benefits of using a monitoring receiver for measuring 5G signals.Real-world examples explain how to perform various key 5G measurements. The final section covers further 5G measurement possibilities using R&S products. "Over-the-air" (OTA) measurements are essential in 5G. This means staff from regulators and operators must work in unknown radio environments that vary according to location (e.g. urban or suburban) and mission (e.g. 5G BTS compliance testing or interference hunting). Measurement equipment must operate in a wide range of scenarios (close to the mast and far from the mast) and offer user-friendly functionality that enables the required measurements.Considering current global deployment trends, this paper focuses on the FR1 frequency band (sub 6 GHz).
07-Jun-2021 | AN-No. 1SL366
This application Note is based on CMW500, SMBV100B and Vector CANoe.Car2x Software and guides to how to simulate the specific Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) wireless environment in respect to road transport scenarios and transmitted messages around the Device Under Test (DUT) like a Telematics Control Unit (TCU). It shows how to verify and validate the C-V2X application of the DUT in laboratory environment. The virtual simulation scenario is not limited to the requirements of CSAE53-2017 specification, and it could be modified by user according to this operating guide with CANoe.Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) is a new generation of information and communications technologies that connect vehicles to everything. The objective of V2X is to increase road safety and manage traffic efficiently.C-V2X is designed to offer low-latency vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-roadside infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) communications services to add a new dimension to future advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). C-V2X as one communications standard defined by 3GPP in Release 14 uses LTE technology as the physical interface for communications. The standard describes two types of communications. The vehicle-to-network (V2N) communications type, exploits the cellular Uu interface, uses traditional cellular link to enable cloud services to be integrated into end-to-end solutions, e.g. to allow road and traffic information for a given area to be distributed to the vehicles.The second type is referred to as direct or PC5/Sidelink (V2V, V2I, V2P) communications, where data transmission takes place over the PC5 interface. In that type, C-V2X does not necessarily require a cellular network infrastructure. It can operate without a SIM and without network assistance and uses GNSS as its primary source for time synchronization.Verifying system functionality and performance exclusively by field testing in a real-world environment can be time-consuming, costly and very challenging. Requirements regarding functionality, and consequently the required assistance functions, are constantly changing. Due to this fact, test solutions are needed during the development and introduction phase to verify compliance with the standards. The PC5 direct communications type allows exchange of time sensitive and safety relevant information. Using a mobile communication tester like the R&S® CMW500 together with a C-V2X scenario simulation tool delivers reproducible test scenarios. This is essential for the standardization of verification processes for C-V2X in order to obtain reliable and comparable results, and it helps to demonstrate that end-to-end functionality between two C-V2X devices from different vendors works properly.
02-Jun-2021 | AN-No. GFM341
The UWB (Ultra-Wide Band) technology is a low power wide-band technology specified for device to device communication.It is an optimal RF positioning technology that enables accurate and secure peerto-peer distance measurement between mobile devices with robust resistance to interference while consuming very low energy and coexisting well with other radio communication systems.This application note describes how to use the UWB measurement functionality provided by R&S®CMP200 radio communication tester to perform HRP UWB PHY measurements for R&D and production purposes.
19-May-2021 | AN-No. GFM362
Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) uses radar wavelengths for airborne or spaceborne ground mapping. The resolution of the SAR ground map depends on the range and cross-range SAR processing resolution. Cross-range resolution is determined by integrating pulses along a flight path for a period of time to create a synthetic aperture. Longer synthetic apertures result in finer cross-range resolution. Range resolution is achieved by radar waveform bandwidth in the form of a linear frequency modulated (LFM) chirp. Wider bandwidth enables finer range resolution.
16-Apr-2021
This document provides information on how to perform manual testing based on current R&S TA-TRS QuickStep V4.05 platform in order to adapt to the new released EN 303 345 for broadcast sound receivers. It serves as a bridged document before new standard software package released by R&S for upgrade.
14-Apr-2021
This application note describes Methods of Implementations (MOI) for precise, fast and error-free compliance testing of high-speed backplanes and direct attach copper cables (DAC) according to InfiniBand EDR and HDR specifications, based on 25 Gb/s and 50 Gb/s signaling per lane with vector network analyzers from Rohde & Schwarz.
07-Apr-2021 | AN-No. GFM357
This application note describes Methods of Implementations (MOI) for precise, fast and error-free compliance testing of high-speed backplanes and direct attach copper cables (DAC) according to IEEE 802.3bj, IEEE 802.3by, IEEE 802.3cd and IEEE 802.3ck, based on 25 Gb/s, 50 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s signaling per lane with vector network analyzers from Rohde & Schwarz.
07-Apr-2021 | AN-No. GFM356
This application note introduces the reader to the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition project and their special demands for the electrical drive train. Common motor technology like brushless motors and their typical control methods widely used in the industry are also discussed within this document.However, the main focus of this paper is a demonstration of a power measurement method of a three-phase inverter by means of a 4-channel oscilloscope. Not only the theory of the power measurement is presented but also the conducted measurement is presented including tips and tricks to obtain the best measurement results.The measurement solution provided by Rohde & Schwarz was mandatory for the TUM Hyperloop team to overcome challenges in optimization of the electrical drive train used in the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition project.Many thanks to Mr. Johannes Ungar and Faruk Centinkaya (TUM Hyperloop) for contributing significantly to this application note. By combining their expertise in electrical drive trains used in the Hyperloop Project and with a Test & Measurement solution from Rohde & Schwarz, we have achieved synergies that will be beneficial for any design and test engineers in the industry.
31-Mar-2021 | AN-No. GFM360
This application note belongs to a series of application notes which explains how to test EW receivers at RF in the lab with commercial, off-the-shelf signal generators and software. The series will cover all relevant use cases. This application note will discuss threat simulation and verification. Further application notes will address calibration and verification of multi-channel setups for simulation of angle of arrival, generation of radar signals in a hardware in the loop (HIL) environment with PDW Streaming, and automated threat creation and sequencing.
23-Mar-2021 | AN-No. 1GP123
From designing a test setup to performing accurate measurements
Double-Pulse testing is a standard test-method used in power electronics design. Accurate measurements require a careful design of the test setup and the selection of the right measurement instruments. This application note discusses important aspects of double-pulse test setups as well as how to perform accurate measurements.
22-Mar-2021 | AN-No. GFM347
Source measure units R&S®NGU401 and R&S®NGU201 are capable of precise current measurements from sub-microampere up to ampere. This application note provides a tool which generates a voltage or current sweep using the arbitrary function of the instruments. A fast log captures voltage and current values during the sweep. Subsequently the application program determines the voltage and current value for each sweep step and plots the results in an I-V curve .The tool can be utilized to characterize all kinds of two-pole devices like diodes, LEDs and solar panels.This application note can also be used in connection with DC power supplies R&S®NGM201 and R&S®NGM202.
15-Feb-2021 | AN-No. 1GP129
conducted conformance testing according to TS 38.141-1, Rel. 16
3GPP defines the Radio Frequency (RF) conformance test methods and requirements for 5G NR Base Stations (BS) in the technical specifications TS 38.141. This application note describes how all mandatory RF transmitter tests (TS 38.141-1, chapter 6), according to Release 16, can be performed quickly and conveniently with signal or spectrum analyzers from Rohde & Schwarz by either choosing manual operation or a remote control approach. Moreover, some test cases require additional signal generation equipment from Rohde & Schwarz.In Addition, a new Python software library comes with this application note to enable the remote control approach of base station testing. This example requires the RsInstrument module which can be found on pypi.org or installed via 'pip' and is provided as is.
27-Jan-2021 | AN-No. GFM313
Development of modern EW systems is a complex and expensive process, that requires thorough testing against all requirements during all phases of development. To keep cost under control, system level testing in the lab is key and brings several advantages: test cases can be reproduced under the exact same conditions as often as necessary. System level testing in the lab is often performed in a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) environment. This application note provides some insight into generating radar signals for hardware-in-the-loop testing with the R&S®SMW200A. An introduction to HIL testing and realtime operation of the R&S®SMW200A is given. The hardware and software interface, the PDW format and synchronization and timing mechanisms are described. Additionally, various example scenarios and detailed information about intermediate calculations are provided. The application note also provides information about system requirements for advanced PDW streaming with multiple emitters on multiple parallel streams.
22-Jan-2021 | AN-No. 1GP124
based on SCPI command sequences
MINX – the Measurement Instrument Network eXplorer – is a fast, non-invasive discovery and configuration software from Rohde & Schwarz for LAN and USB T&M instruments.Agnostic of instrument model or manufacturer, MINX provides an intuitive graphical user interface with access to powerful configuration, control, results collection and remote display functions.Test or research engineers can quickly setup a collection of instruments to initialise, measure and download results. Universities can configure and manage many instruments together, copying instruments and saving class setups.Besides these core functions, MINX provides an extension mechanism making even more sophisticated instrument operations available by just the click of a single button. Such extended functions are SCPI-based command sequences which can be added by the user on a per-instrument basis and require no software update.This application note describes the different kind of extendable function groups. It will be pointed out how extended functions can be added or edited and which format the script must comply in order to get directly available in MINX.
12-Jan-2021 | AN-No. GFM344
In this day and age of internet of things, more and more devices are connected to the local network, making it even more difficult for the IT department to monitor them. Rohde & Schwarz instruments are also increasingly accessed via their LAN interface, which provides additional convenience features such as remote desktop, SMB file transfer or a web interface. To make it easier to monitor the use and status of instruments, some devices offer a software option, the Health and Utilization Monitoring Service (HUMS).HUMS can be accessed via SNMP and REST (HTTP) and provides all necessary information about the health status and utilization over time in many details.This application note describes how to access HUMS and what data is provided.
11-Jan-2021 | AN-No. GFM336
Analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) have taken giant steps in speed and accuracy over the past years: Such devices allow high-speed video processing and even software defined radio (SDR) applications, where digitization is being performed at ever-higher intermediate frequencies (IF). This has clearly raised the bar for ADC test equipment, especially regarding the noise performance of the analog input signal and sample clock sources used in the test setup. The R&S®SMA100B offers outputs for the analog input signal of the ADC as well as the clock input signal in one single instrument - both with outstanding signal purity.
11-Jan-2021 | AN-No. 1GP66
A simple concept with Azure IoT
Cloud development, microservice architectures and container virtualization are becoming more and more standard. Software components are repacked into containers, networked with each other and then brought into the cloud. The topic is also becoming increasingly interesting for test & measurement.But how do you connect your existing measurement equipment to the cloud, with instruments in some cases not even having an internet connection?This document describes an approach how to establish a remote connection between the instrument and the cloud using an IoT broker. The implementation is done using an Azure IoT Hub and software in .NET Core.
15-Dec-2020 | AN-No. GFM319
This document describes Bluetooth Low Energy RF over-the-air RX and TX measurements using advertising channels for communication with Bluetooth Low Energy devices.With the R&S®CMW-KD611 software option, the R&S CMW tester is able to perform a large number of Bluetooth Low Energy RF tests without operating in the Direct Test Mode.The Bluetooth® word mark and logos are registered trademarks owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. and any use of such marks by Rohde & Schwarz is under license.
14-Dec-2020 | AN-No. 1C109
High-precision two-quadrant power supplies generate current profiles and simulate batteries
10-Dec-2020
conducted conformance testing according to TS 38.141-1, Rel. 15
3GPP defines the Radio Frequency (RF) conformance test methods and requirements for 5G NR Base Stations (BS) in the technical specifications TS 38.141. This application note describes how all mandatory RF receiver tests (TS 38.141-1, chapter 7), according to Release 15, can be performed quickly and conveniently with signal generators from Rohde & Schwarz by either choosing manual operation or a remote control approach. Moreover, one test case requires a signal or spectrum analyzer from Rohde & Schwarz which is highlighted seperately in the corresponding chapter.In Addition, a new Python software library comes with this application note to enable the remote control approach of base station testing. This example requires the RsInstrument module which can be found on pypi.org or installed via 'pip' and is provided as is.
02-Dec-2020 | AN-No. GFM314
The R&S®ESW-B8 and R&S®ESW-B8E extended bandwidth options allow the R&S®ESW EMI test receiver to measure with a resolution bandwidth of up to 80 MHz. The increasing number of wideband applications (e.g. radar sensors) and accompanying standards means there is now a greater interest in wide bandwidth measurements.This application note describes the following topics for the R&S®ESW EMI test receiver:► Characteristics and implementation of RF signal paths► Image responses and how their rejection is handled ► Ultrawideband measurement applications as required e.g. by ETSI standards► Solutions for efficiently coping with bandwidth limitations in the range above 8 GHz
19-Nov-2020 | AN-No. 1EE26
This application note provides an introduction to the DDR memory technology and explains common challenges, related to the specific nature of DDR data, command / address and control buses and describes the typical measurements to verify and debug DDR system designs.The paper explains the recommended test points and the connection of oscilloscope probes as well as the compensation of effects from DDR interposers via deembedding. The document describes efficient Signal Integrity verification with eye diagram measurements, advanced triggering and TDR/TDT functionality. Given the high number of signal lines and the dynamic bus termination, SSN (simultaneous switching noise) has a significant effect in DDR memory designs and Signal Integrity as well as Power Integrity is highly pattern dependent. We introduce techniques to achieve high acquisition rates and help to efficiently detect worst case scenarios, affecting the performance of the overall memory design. The document also includes a close look on Power Integrity.Providing best practice examples in the design verification and debugging process, the document addresses all system designers and test engineers, working on DDR memory designs.
30-Oct-2020 | AN-No. GFM340
PAM-4 (4-level pulse amplitude modulation) has been introduced in high-speed serial data technology to reduce the bandwidth demands of ultra-high data rates. It uses only half the bandwidth per bit that would be required of conventional NRZ (non-return to zero) modulation. But at the same time, PAM-4 signaling complicates design and test at every turn. Evaluation of channels is now just as important to system development as serializer / deserializer (SerDes) testing and the challenges presented require a higher level of test and measurement performance than ever before. This paper investigates the evaluation complexities of PAM-4 interconnects at high data rates.
22-Oct-2020 | AN-No. GFM355
The R&S®FSW signal and spectrum analyzer measures and analyzes time sidelobes to optimize compressed radar signals as well as radar hardware components and systems. Developers of radar systems can improve and immediately validate their design using automated and reproducible measurements.
22-Oct-2020
For automated test applications, measurement time is often as important as the quality of the measurement. As with many situations, time is money. In practice, phase noise measurements are generally not considered fast, but test engineers still desire to save as much test time as possible. The Rohde & Schwarz®FSWP (FSWP) is a modern, digital signal processing based, phase-noise test set that performs many tasks in parallel in an effort to improve measurements speed. However, several measurement settings drastically affect measurement speed. This paper will discuss these settings and provide suggestions on improving overall measurement speed.The three key instrument parameters that affect FSWP measurement speed are:1. Number of cross correlations2. Resolution bandwidth (RBW)3. Offset frequency span
08-Oct-2020 | AN-No. GFM354
Almost every switched-mode power supply (SMPS) needs an EMI (Electro Magnetic Interference) input filter to suppress any disturbances of the SMPS on the power lines. This requirement having an input filter in the design ensures that no negative effect will occur in other parts of the systems connected to the power lines. Therefore, the design and the validation of the input filter is a major task during a typical power supply design. The conducted emission (CE) test according to a specific standard is a suitable and a common validation method to release the design at the end of the development cycle. Nowadays, this conducted emission test will be performed as pre-compliance test during the development phase in the lab as well. In this case, the designer will obtain an early feedback whether the design has to be optimized regarding any disturbances present on the power lines. In most cases, the designer has to adjust the input filter to obtain a more effective suppression of disturbances generated by the SMPS. However, the designer needs to know details about the noise spectrum to optimize the input filter as effective as possible. In addition to magnitude and frequency information of the noise source, it would be very helpful to know whether the noise is generated by a common mode source or by a differential mode source. During the standard conducted emission test, common and differential mode noise is a combination in the measurement results and thus not possible to gain deeper insights. This document will describe a method to separate common-mode and differential-mode separation using two oscilloscope channels. This separation approach works without any additional hardware component like a noise separator. The designer will be able to distinguish between common-mode (CM) and differential-mode (DM) noise. This additional information about the dominant mode provides the capability to optimize input filters very efficiently.
17-Sep-2020 | AN-No. GFM353
R&S®AdVISE is a visual inspection software to monitor different regions of interest (ROIs) in a video for visible and audible changes. It automates the process of visually monitoring equipment under test during a test sequence and therefore eliminates human inattention, ensures reproducible results and simplifies the test documentation. R&S®AdVISE offers the possibility to monitor up to 32 ROIs in one video with 12 different specialized ROI types for different kinds of events. That allows the user to apply R&S®AdVISE to all sorts of individual test setups.This application note explains how to setup R&S®AdVISE to monitor the temperature of an EUT by using an infrared camera.
14-Sep-2020 | AN-No. 1S008
Applications requiring higher voltages or currents, or a stack of voltage sources with taps in-between, demand the combination of several DC power supply channels in series or in parallel.All channels of DC power supplies R&S®NGL200 and R&S®NGM200 are isolated against the grounding equipment conductor and against the digital ground of the instrument. Therefore, channels can be connected in parallel for increasing the current capability, or in series for achieving higher voltages or dual-voltage supplies.When a large number of power supply channels is used, it is desirable to have a tool for configuring all instruments and channels from one user interface, and for keeping an overview over the states and measurement values from all channels.The application program of this application note provides such a tool. The document contains background information and user manual for the software.
27-Aug-2020 | AN-No. 1GP127
Power converter and inverter designs for higher power levels are usually based on hard switching half bridge configurations. In such setups, users must pay particular attention to proper switching operations to prevent shoot-through events. Setting up complex real-time trigger conditions using the R&S®RTE and R&S®RTO oscilloscopes increases the test coverage and robustness of converter and inverter systems.
10-Aug-2020