When time and frequency matter
An exclusive interview with a technical leader
Larry Maloney, Contributing Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 3/1/2009 2:00:00 AM
 Harald Kruger CEO Pendulum Instruments Stockholm, Sweden In 1998, Harald Kruger acquired Pendulum Instruments as a spinoff of Philips Electronics and became the company’s CEO. Over the last decade, he has successfully built the 40-year-old company into a leading innovator in solutions for calibration, measurement, and analysis of time and frequency. In 2005, Kruger led Pendulum’s acquisition of California-based XL Microwave, expanding Pendulum’s high-frequency capabilities. Last year, Pendulum Instruments became part of the Orolia Group, a precision electronics technology firm based in France. Kruger earned his MSc degree in economic science at Linköping University in Sweden in 1994. Contributing editor Larry Maloney conducted an e-mail interview with Kruger on the growing importance of time and frequency measurements in a variety of applications. Read a continuation of this interview. |
Q: What test challenges drive the need for greater time and frequency accuracy?
A: In communications, for example, the move from analog to digital TV is one important driver. Another driver is the deployment of higher bandwidth 3G networks, including WiMAX, with tight demands for frequency control and time synchronization.
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Harald Kruger addresses more questions on the growing importance of time and frequency measurements in a variety of applications in the continuation of this interview. |
Q: How do Pendulum’s products address these challenges?
A: Our CNT-90 family of time/frequency analyzers is optimized for high measurement speed, which is crucial in many applications. In R&D, you need to follow transient frequency behavior, start-up behavior, fast modulation, radio-channel-switching time, frequency settling, and other parameters. For long-term monitoring of frequency or time intervals, as in applications where you must compare two reference frequencies, our CNT-91 time/frequency analyzer can capture and continuously output up to 10,000 results per second to a controller for an unlimited time.
Time and frequency calibrations basically involve an accurate frequency reference, the actual signal under test, and an accurate comparator between these two signals. High-frequency accuracy in a measurement or calibration situation is always limited by the accuracy of the frequency reference. Pendulum offers several frequency standards with very accurate rubidium clocks, both GPS-controlled and stand alone. Our latest product launch, the CNT-91R, combines an integrated rubidium clock with a high-performance frequency analyzer. So, you get a high-accuracy frequency calibrator in one portable box.
Q: What are your target industries?
A: Oscillator manufacturers, aerospace/defense, metrology labs, telecommunications companies, and a variety of electronics industries. Our customers include such enterprises as Ericsson, USAF, Royal Air Force (UK), NDK (Japan), and Foxconn, as well as mobile telephone operators in more than 50 countries.
Q: What are the performance advantages of dedicated frequency analyzers?
A: Unlike a digitizing multipurpose instrument, the CNT-91 requires the time stamp of just two signal zero crossings to calculate frequency between sample points. A digitizing type of instrument would need thousands of sample values during the measurement to identify and calculate frequency. Even if these samples are captured at high speed, the high number of data points needed slows down the calculation.
For time-interval measurements, such as the skew between antenna signal outputs, the very high resolution of a 50-ps single-shot in CNT-91 corresponds to a 20-GHz sample clock frequency in a digitizing solution. To reach 50-ps resolution in a unit with a 200-MHz sample clock would require the average of 10,000 time intervals. The CNT-91 does it in one single interval. That’s a big boost in throughput for test engineers.
Q: Do more customers want system solutions?
A: We see a growing demand from customers, such as high-tech labs, to set up large frequency-distribution systems. These typically involve fiber-optic solutions that distribute signals over long distances without EMI [electromagnetic interference]. One telecom customer needed to deliver two different frequencies from the 10th floor of a building to several labs on other floors. Pendulum provided a flexible, economical solution consisting of two GPS-controlled frequency standards, four distribution amplifiers, and multiple racks with output boards to fiber.
Read the continuation of this interview.
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