The PXIe-5665, a 3.6GHz RF vector signal analyser (VSA) developed by National Instruments, comes in a cost-effective PXI form factor. The PXI platform facilitates peer-to-peer streaming, and includes a flexible multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) architecture for phase-coherent measurements. Furthermore, measurement speeds are at least five times faster than traditional rack-and-stack instruments.
The analyser combines the PXIe-5603 downconverter with the PXIe-5653 local oscillator synthesiser and the PXIe-5622, a 150Msample/s intermediate-frequency (IF) digitiser. This combination can handle spectrum and wideband vector-signal measurements over a 20Hz to 3.6GHz frequency range, with analysis bandwidths up to 50MHz.
Features of the new VSA include a low phase noise of -129 dBc/Hz at a 10kHz offset at 800MHz, an average noise level of -165dBm/Hz, a third-order intercept point of +24dBm, and absolute amplitude accuracy of ±0.10dB.
For modulated signal analysis, the VSA’s onboard self-calibration tool enables an IF amplitude response of ±0.15dB and IF phase linearity of ±0.1°. This accuracy facilitates error-vector-magnitude performance of less than 0.21% for a 256-QAM signal. The analyser’s modular architecture expands to provide phase-coherent acquisition for MIMO test, as well as a 20GHz/s scan rate for efficient spectrum monitoring.