Keithley and Azimuth Systems Announce Collaboration to Create LTE, WiMAX RF Testing Solutions
CLEVELAND, OH, and ACTON, MA, June 16, 2008
Keithley Instruments (NYSE:KEI), a leader in solutions for emerging measurement needs, has developed a joint effort with Azimuth Systems, a provider of wireless broadband test equipment and channel emulators for WiMAX, 4G, and Wi-Fi. Keithley is working with Azimuth Systems to deliver critical end-to-end MIMO RF test solutions to mobile handset manufacturers, infrastructure vendors, and service providers for next-generation LTE and WiMAX testing.
The Keithley/Azimuth solution will consist of Keithley’s 4x4 MIMO RF Test System and Azimuth’s ACE™ 400WB Channel Emulator. Together, the solution will allow test engineers and designers to execute tests such as measuring resulting packet error rate (PER)/bit error rate (BER) under varying and worst-case channel conditions. These tests are critical to ensure that 4G and WiMAX devices will deliver the high throughput that subscribers expect.
“The wireless industry is currently at an inflection point—as radio architectures are moving from SISO to MIMO—presenting engineers a new set of measurement challenges,” said Mark Hoersten, vice president of business development for Keithley. “The Keithley RF instrumentation has been designed from the ground up with MIMO measurement capability in mind to help facilitate the transition. Working with Azimuth allows us to provide customers a complete measurement solution.”
Keithley provides flexible MIMO-capable vector signal generators (VSG) and vector signal analyzers (VSA) while Azimuth is a leader in next-generation MIMO-capable channel emulators for carrier-grade wireless communication. The Azimuth 4G channel emulator supports the EVM and SNR requirements of 4G technology. It also is the only 4x4 bidirectional channel emulator able to support MIMO and beam-forming applications.
Keithley provides the only VSA/VSG MIMO-based solution with configurations of up to 8x8 channels. Keithley’s 4x4 RF Test System offers continuous frequency coverage from 400 MHz to 6 GHz and a standard 40 MHz measurement bandwidth, covering WiMAX, LTE, and WLAN standards. The RF test system is also the only complete beam-forming ready solution, with phase-locked instrumentation. Its coverage spans from SISO to easily upgradeable MIMO configurations up to 8x8.
About Azimuth Systems
Azimuth Systems provides wireless broadband test equipment and channel emulators for Wi-Fi and 4G technologies, such as WiMAX and LTE. Azimuth's products are used by wireless semiconductor designers, system vendors, and service providers to speed time-to-market and improve wireless product quality. Azimuth's standardized test solutions enable research, development, QA, and marketing engineers to test the performance, conformance, and certification of broadband wireless devices and networks supporting data, voice, and video applications. The company is based in Acton, MA, and backed by investors including Kodiak Venture Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners.
About Keithley Instruments
With more than 60 years of measurement expertise, Keithley Instruments has become a world leader in advanced electrical test instruments and systems from DC to RF. The company’s products address emerging measurement needs in production testing, process monitoring, product development, and research. Its customers are scientists and engineers in the worldwide electronics industry involved with advanced materials research, semiconductor device development and fabrication, and the production of end products such as portable wireless devices.
For More Information
For more information on Keithley's RF test solutions, visit
www.keithley.com/products/rfmicrowave or contact the company at 800-688-9951. For more information on Azimuth’s ACE test solutions, contact the company at 978-263-6610 or visit
www.azimuthsystems.com
Products and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.