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

This application note is about creating your own battery model for the R&S®NGM200 or R&S®NGU201, beyond the standard models provided within the battery simulation option NGM-K106. The main purpose is to gradually discharge a battery or a rechargeable battery using the internal QuickArb function. The discharge of the battery can then be recorded using the fast data logging functionality FastLog. The recorded data are stored in a .CSV file. This file can then be adapted to be used as a battery model in the battery simulation mode of the R&S®NGM200. For this purpose, Rohde & Schwarz provides a tool for developers to make their work easier. This tool calculates all the data required for a battery model.

15-Feb-2021 | AN-No. 1GP128

Oscilloscopes are increasingly used to analyze pulsed signals such as radar signals for aerospace and defence as well as automotive applications. The oscilloscopes’ wide analysis bandwidth and manifold trigger capabilities, make them a good fit for the increasing demand for higher bandwidths and accurate signal detection in these applications. R&S®VSE vector signal explorer software is a powerful tool for comprehensive analysis of a variety of signals, providing full support to the Rohde & Schwarz oscilloscope advanced trigger system. Adjusting the trigger settings enables pulses and pulse sequences to be isolated and run full pulse analysis using the R&S®VSE vector signal explorer software.

03-Feb-2021

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

From the expert’s desk

15-Jan-2021

Performing precompliance measurements on power supplies requires using a line impedance stabilization network (LISN) for results that can be compared to limit values. While LISNs are standard in any precompliance lab, often no LISN is available for early R&D testing. If high accuracy is not your goal and you just need a simple tool for debugging, you can build your own LISN. Rohde & Schwarz oscilloscopes with powerful FFT analysis, are ideal for optimizing EMI filters or debugging unwanted emissions during development.

14-Jan-2021

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

Filter tuning was never easier and faster. SynMatrix advanced computer-aided tuning enables real time filter optimization in an easy guided process using the R&S®ZNB vector network analyzer from Rohde & Schwarz. The SynMatrix solution offers a feature-rich GUI for R&D and lab use, as well as a simplified version for production applications.

03-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®SMW200A vector signal generator can take on the role of a powerful and flexible signal generation source for the most realistic and agile radar scenarios in highly integrated radar scenario simulators. Equipped with the R&S®SMW-K503/-K504 options, the R&S®SMW200A can generate any stateof-the-art and future I/Q modulated radar signals from streamed pulse descriptor words (PDW). It supports a PDW execution rate of up to 12 megapulse descriptor words per second (MPDW/s).

20-Nov-2020

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

The antenna patterns of automotive radars provide a wealth of information that is of vital importance during radar development and validation.

28-Oct-2020

Verify and optimize your product design under realistic fading conditions in a deterministic lab environment that allows repeatable measurements using standardized and user-defined fading profiles.

27-Oct-2020

A radar system typically operates 24 hours with minimal downtime. Maintaining the operation of such a system requires fast identification of any defects in the system components. The R&S®ZNH handheld vector network analyzer helps field engineers quickly and reliably maintain radar systems to minimize downtimes.

22-Oct-2020

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

Many serial interfaces use Manchester or non-return-to-zero (NRZ) coding. Oscilloscopes typically offer dedicated software options for debugging and testing the communications interfaces for common standards such as I2C, UART or CAN. The R&S®RTx-K50 option expands the addressable range of interface standards by adding decoding capability for standardized and proprietary Manchester or NRZ coded buses. It allows customizable configuration of the protocol structure that has to be decoded.

19-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

Timing components such as low jitter oscillators and clocks are necessary to facilitate increasing data rates in high speed digital designs. As part of the overall system design, the components also have to perform in the system’s non-ideal power integrity environment and limit the power supply induced phase noise and jitter from power rail disturbances. Measuring the power supply noise rejection (PSNR) requires accurate generation and leveling of artificial, sinusoidal disturbances and measurement of resulting phase-noise and jitter impairments.

30-Sep-2020

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

Polychrome display method with the R&S®PR100, R&S®PR200, R&S®DDF007 and R&S®MNT100

09-Sep-2020

Power consumption analysis with the Rohde & Schwarz specialty DC power supplies app card Power consumption analysis with the Rohde & Schwarz specialty DC power supplies app card Power consumption analysis with the Rohde & Schwarz specialty DC power supplies Power consumption analysis with the Rohde & Schwarz specialty DC power supplies app card Power consumption analysis with the Rohde & Schwarz specialty

09-Sep-2020