News Briefs

Agilent Technologies has announced a 5.7-Mbps HSUPA test capability for its W-CDMA/HSPA Test and Lab Application software packages, which run on the company’s 8960/E5515C wireless communications test set. The E1963A W-CDMA/HSPA Test Application supports Radio Bearer and Frequency Division Duplex test modes and applicable 3GPP TS 34.121 HSUPA RF measurements. The E6703E W-CDMA/HSPA Lab Application features all the capabilities of Test Application and adds support for packet-switched (PS) data connectivity for HSDPA mobile devices.

HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access) is a 3G mobile telephony protocol in the HSPA family with uplink speeds up to 5.7 Mbps. It is designed to extend and improve the performance of UMTS protocols by reducing latency and increasing uplink throughput.

The 8960 test set can be used for wireless device development, manufacture, and repair of all major 2G, 2.5G, 3G, and 3.5G wireless technologies. The new 5.7-Mbps HSUPA test capability for the E1963A Test Application and E6703E Lab Application will be commercially available in the fourth quarter.

Base prices: W-CDMA/HSPA Test Application—$14,800; HSDPA and HSUPA test-mode options—$10,400 each; and W-CDMA/HSPA Lab Application (including all Test Application features and HSUPA and HSDPA test-mode options)—$46,000. www.agilent.com.

On July 11, Lockheed Martin broke ground a $15 million, 9600-ft² radar test structure at its Radar Systems facility in Syracuse, NY. The 80-ft-tall structure will house equipment that will be used to design, analyze, characterize, and test advanced radar systems, such as digital phased array systems. Users will be able to automate a precision antenna measurement process from setup through analysis.

The Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) is expected to be an early user of the new facility. MEADS is a mobile air and missile defense system designed to replace Patriot systems in the US and Germany and to replace Nike Hercules systems in Italy. Lockheed Martin’s Syracuse facility is developing the new MEADS surveillance radar. www.lockheedmartin.com.

Geotest, KineticSystems, and Pickering Interfaces have teamed up to create the “No Compromise Test Solutions Conference,” a seminar designed to demonstrate the benefits of using products from multiple vendors when building test platforms. The seminar will be held at several locations across the US.

Presentations will focus on a particular aspect of test (such as data acquisition, digital, software, signal conditioning, and signal switching), and presenters will explain how products from different vendors can be integrated into a test system. The seminars will focus on PXI-based test platforms, but other platforms will be discussed as well.

“Designing a test system can be a complex undertaking, especially if you’re considering multiple test platforms such as PXI and LXI,” said Loofie Gutterman, president of Geotest. “With so many vendors to choose from, selecting the ones best suited to your application can be a daunting task. The 'No Compromise’ seminar can help customers make more informed choices.” www.geotestinc.com.

Although Tektronix calls the SA2600 spectrum analyzer a handheld instrument, the term “armheld” is more appropriate. Despite offering battery operation and a carrying strap, the instrument’s 13x10x4.8-in. dimensions and its 12-lb weight make it a little bulky for the average engineer to hold in a single hand. Nevertheless, the SA2600 can still be transported easily and can handle a variety of RF technologies.

The analyzer is designed for field use in areas such as cell towers and WiFi or WiMAX hotspots. Running Windows CE, the SA2600 uses the company’s DPX technology to let you see frequencies that appear only once in a while. It includes GPS mapping so you can document the location of a particular frequency: Just load your maps into memory and you can mark locations with measurement details.

Because it’s a real-time spectrum analyzer that captures a signal and converts it to the frequency domain, the SA2600 updates itself 500X faster than a swept-tuned spectrum analyzer. It can perform 48,000 measurements/s and catches frequency-hopping signals such as Bluetooth. It can capture signal-hopping pulses of durations as short as 125 µs with 100% probability. The SA2600 operates on frequencies from 10 kHz to 6.2 GHz with 20-MHz real-time bandwidth and –153-dBm displayed average noise level.

Price: $22,900. Tektronix, www.tek.com.

Built on a DSP-based software-defined radio (SDR) architecture, the Model 2820 RF vector signal analyzer and Model 2920 RF vector signal generator from Keithley Instruments enable users to test WiMAX in any frequency band between 400 MHz and 4 GHz. The SDR architecture allows the instruments to be easily upgraded to accommodate new wireless and cellular standards, and they can perform 802.16e mobile WiMAX Wave 2 testing with up to 4x4 multiple-input, multiple-output channels.

The Model 2820 RF vector signal analyzer is optimized for automated testing of wireless devices in both R&D and production. According to Keithley, the analyzer’s measurement speeds are up to three times faster in production test than competitive instruments, while taking up half the space and costing half as much. Together, the Models 2820 and 2920 reduce the test time for RF devices, as they provide built-in list mode features for performing simultaneous measurement of components, transmitters, and receivers. Working in conjunction with the instruments is SignalMeister Version 2.0 waveform creation software, which allows users to create the entire range of signals in accordance with WiMAX and WLAN wireless connectivity standards and 3GPP and 3GPP2 cellular standards.

Base prices: Model 2820 at 4 GHz—$25,000; Model 2920 at 4 GHz—$23,000. SignalMeister can be downloaded at no charge from Keithley’s Web site; specific software licenses start at $2500. Keithley Instruments, www.keithley.com.

Autotestcon, September 8–11, Salt Lake City, UT. Sponsored by the IEEE. www.autotestcon.com.

International Test Conference, October 26–31, Santa Clara, CA. Sponsored by the IEEE. www.itctestweek.org.

Electronica, November 11–14, Munich, Germany. Produced by Messe München. www.electronica.de

To learn about other conferences, courses, and calls for papers, visit www.tmworld.com/events.