Agilent Technologies Inc. is in the news again this morning, having announced at European Microwave Week that it has extended its PNA-X Nonlinear Vector Network Analyzer (NVNA) to 67 GHz. Also in the news, Rigol Technologies Inc. introduced 60-, 100, and 160-MHz arbitrary waveform generators.
The new 67-GHz NVNA enables engineers to make high-frequency nonlinear X-parameter measurements across a wide frequency bandwidth. Agilent said a new 67-GHz phase-reference calibration standard, configured to work with the 67-GHz PNA-X NVNA, is also now available and called the new calibration standard is an industry first that enables accurate and traceable nonlinear measurements to 67 GHz using the NVNA. The phase reference generates a comb of frequencies from 10 MHz to 67 GHz with a known cross-frequency phase relationship traceable to the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
At the European Microwave Week, Agilent is presenting a live demonstration of the NVNA being used to characterize a high-power LDMOS transistor from NXP specifically designed for 2.45-GHz ISM band applications.
Agilent also announced new versions of its Advanced Design System and Electromagnetic Professional software. ADS 2011.10, the latest release of Agilent’s flagship RF design software, and EMPro 2011.11, the company’s updated 3-D modeling and simulation platform, both feature enhancements to further speed and improve RF design and verification.
ADS 2011.10 provides enhancements for RF printed circuit board, MMIC, and multi-technology design, including a design documentation notebook that makes it easy to create and share all or selected views of schematics, the ability to more easily create native air bridges in ADS layout, RF power amplifier design and analysis improvements, an easier multi-technology EM assembly simulation setup, and improved PCB interoperability.
Tightly integrated with Agilent’s ADS, EMPro supports the creation of 3-D models and the analysis of the electrical performance of packages, connectors, antennas, and other RF components. The EMPro 2011.11 release offers a fast FEM iterative solver that provides an additional 2X speed improvement (on top of the 2X speedup already realized in the 2011.07 release) for simulations that include internal ports. It also offers a user-defined passive-loads capability and a fast, two-dimensional port solver that simplifies FEM simulation port setup.
In other news, Rigol Technologies Inc. introduced its the DG4000 series of function/arbitrary waveform generators, which feature two output channels to 160 MHz, 14-bit voltage resolution, a 500-Msample/s sample rate, a high resolution 7″ display, and over 130 built-in waveforms. The instruments target R&D engineers, production test engineers, and teaching labs. The DG4000 models are available in 60-, 100-, or 160-MHz versions. Pricing begins at $795.
Posted 10/12/2011 7:30 AM.