Featured Products - Paul's Picks

The CA-84HN Hybrid Combiner is a network that creates a combination of signals without those signals interacting. The three-port unit features 25-dB isolation, low VSWR, and an integral 10-W load. It covers the common cellular bands from the new LTE 700-MHz band to UMTS and WiMAX bands in the range 698 to 2,700 MHz.

The CA-84HN combines two signals up to a 10-W average, 3-kW peak power per input. Since the load is conventional, the PIM performance is not guaranteed; however, if low PIM down to <-160 dBc is required, the load can be substituted by the TK-21N, a 10-W low PIM load.

The units are moisture sealed and suitable for use in indoor and outdoor applications.

Microlab, a Wireless Telecom Group Company

The modular EX71HD Microwave Switch addresses applications that require nonlatching relays and an operating range of up to 26.5 GHz. Any combination of up to 12 building blocks can be housed in a single 1U-rack LXI Class A enclosure. Building block topologies include dual SPDTs, SP4T, SP6T, and transfer switches as well as a six-line pass-through adapter that can be used to drive external circuitry.

All switches are front-panel pluggable and, when combined with the built-in relay odometer, facilitate field maintenance and service activities. Programming is performed via an embedded Web-based GUI to configure path level assignments. The EX71HD stores up to 128 relay state configurations, including an automatic power-up state. Exclude lists can be defined to avoid setting undesirable configurations.

VTI Instruments

The PX1500-4 is a four-channel digitizer that captures up to 1,500 MS/s on each channel or up to 3,000 MS/s for dual-channel operation when ADC data is interleaved. The board features an eight-lane PCI Express connection to the computer host as well as 2 GB of on-board memory. If the average acquisition data rate does not exceed 1,200 MB/s, then the 2-GB memory may be used as a large FIFO for acquiring continuous data directly to the PCIe bus.

The PX1500-4 has two Virtex-5 FPGAs with unused programmable logic cells to accommodate custom in-line signal processing. Up to three PX1500-4 boards can interconnect in a master/slave configuration. Each board ships with Windows XP/Vista/7 drivers, a C function library, and a signal recording software application.

Signatec

The EL Series of modular, air-cooled DC electronic loads offers power ratings from 1 kW to 5 kW. Twenty standard single-channel models have maximum test capabilities of 50, 200, 400, and 600 volts. Dual-channel models feature two independent loads in a single chassis in any combination of power up to 4 kW maximum.

Constant voltage, constant current, constant power, constant resistance, and constant conductance modes are supported. Higher current and power operation may be achieved via parallel connection using a built-in master/slave capability.

Remote isolated analog programming and digital control by USB and RS-232 are standard; GPIB and Ethernet control are optional via a single control card. The functional modularity feature allows the load to be factory retrofitted to increase load power/current.

Kepco

The 44000 Programmable DC Electronic Load Series consists of two mainframes and eight modules with power ratings from 100 W to 1,200 W, current ratings from 0.5 mA to 240 A, rise time of 10 µs, and voltage ratings from 0.5 mV to 500 V. The loads can be operated in constant current, constant voltage, constant power, and constant resistance and may be placed in parallel.

Programmable parameters include up to 10-A/µs slew rate, load level, and duration. Up to 100 sets of system operating status can be stored in memory and recalled for automated testing applications.

The loads also have a self-diagnosis routine, a keypad on the front panel, RS-232 as a standard interface, and USB or GPIB as an option.

QuadTech

The single-channel, programmable 41-743 Power Supply delivers 2 A at output voltages up to 20 V and 0.8 A up to 48 V. Sense connections can be set to use the remote connection or regulate the output on the user terminals.

Trigger operation allows the power supply to execute output current limit or voltage settings in response to a hardware event from the front panel or the PXI trigger bus. An output buffer enables measurement results to be stored and read back when the system is ready to process the results. Measurements also can be made at timed intervals.

Power is drawn from two PXI backplane slots. The 41-743 can be supported by any PXI chassis or the company’s LXI modular chassis.

Pickering Interfaces

The QuickSyn FSW-0020 Frequency Synthesizer covers the 0.2-GHz to 20-GHz frequency range and supports AM, FM, phase, and pulse modulation as well as power leveling and control. The compact unit uses a fundamental VCO to achieve the desired output frequency, eliminating possible spectrum contamination from subharmonic products. Direct digital synthesis enables frequency resolution of 0.001 Hz. A low-noise locking mechanism switches frequencies within as little as 100 µs in the triggered list mode and maintains phase noise to –116 dBc/Hz with a 10-kHz offset at 20 GHz.

A software user interface provides access to functions including frequency and power control, RF output and reference mute, independent frequency and power sweeps, list mode, and modulation. The software is part of a QuickStart kit.

Phase Matrix