Spectrum analyser bandwidth extended to 165MHz

“Wireless standards are changing to require more bandwidth and at the same time signal durations are getting shorter, making them more difficult than ever to detect,” said Jim McGillivary, general manager, Source Analyser Product Line, Tektronix. “With these introductions, Tektronix is giving our customers the characterization and troubleshooting tools with superior real-time features at the lowest price on the market.”

Tektronix RTSAs features include density trigger, time-qualified triggers and innovative swept DPX display technology that makes it easier to find unwanted transmissions.

So, what’s new? The wider 165MHz acquisition bandwidth also supports the new 160 MHz bandwidth found in 802.11ac, up from 40 MHz in prior 802.11 versions. The minimum signal duration for 100 percent Probability of Intercept (POI) has improved 33 percent to 2.8 µsec. Even the briefest signals are discovered, triggered on and saved, minimising time to intercept in spectrum management applications.

Highest performance real-time features — previously available only for an extra cost – are now standard in RSA5000B instruments, including swept DPX, density trigger, time-qualified triggers and improved minimum signal duration. Spectrum processing rate has increased by 33%, to more than 390,000spectrums/sec.

A 26.5 GHz version of the SPECMON series is now available and advanced DPX RF signal discovery capability is now standard. This enables SPECMON to be used for high performance spectrum management involving higher frequency signals including microwave links, backhaul signals and radar.

There is also expanded support for 802.11 WLAN standards (optional) including the widest-bandwidth 802.11ac variant.

The enhancements to the RSA and SPECMON instruments are part of a broader push by Tektronix to give embedded engineers, component designers and spectrum managers a complete set of tools tailored to their specific needs.

This includes today’s other announcement of the MDO4000B series of mixed domain oscilloscopes (see below) with significantly improved spectrum analyser performance along with new WLAN test and debug solutions. The MDO4000B is well suited for embedded design and lower-cost wideband analysis while the RSA and SPECMON are appropriate for higher performance applications.