Cost-Conscious Network Analyzers Get Lean And Stay Mean

Feb. 16, 2004

Designed for production-line applications at significantly lower prices than Agilent Technologies' flagship 871x and 872x ENA and PNA series, the company's ENA-L and PNA-L network analyzers provide the basic capabilities needed to characterize active and passive components, such as filters, amplifiers, antennas, cables, and CATV taps. Yet they don't skimp on performance.

Compared to the flagship units, the ENA-L and PNA-L feature a 115-dB dynamic range (versus 101 dB), a sweep speed of 35 ms/sweep (versus 240 ms), a 50-GHz bandwidth for the PNA-L (versus 40 GHz), and a 10-in. LCD screen with optional touchscreen capability (versus a 9-in. monochrome CRT), all at half the weight and a third the depth. They also boast log and segment sweeps in addition to linear and power sweeps, support for Agilent's Electronic Calibration (ECal) modules, and VBA programming with a GUI (versus IBASIC).

The ENA-L series provides increased production-line throughput, optional 75-Ω test ports, and six- and 12-port capabilities using Agilent's 87075C test set. The PNA-L series, available in 10-, 20-, 40-, and 50-GHz bandwidths, features up to 32 channels, up to 16 simultaneous displays, LAN and USB interfaces, up to 16,001 points/trace, a 250-kHz IF bandwidth, and PRN, png, bmp, and jpg graphic formats.

Both series are available now. The ENA-L series ranges from $12,300 to $23,500, and the PNA-L series ranges from $62,000 to $98,000.

Agilent Technologies www.agilent.com (800) 452-4844, ext. 7874

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About the Author

Roger Allan

Roger Allan is an electronics journalism veteran, and served as Electronic Design's Executive Editor for 15 of those years. He has covered just about every technology beat from semiconductors, components, packaging and power devices, to communications, test and measurement, automotive electronics, robotics, medical electronics, military electronics, robotics, and industrial electronics. His specialties include MEMS and nanoelectronics technologies. He is a contributor to the McGraw Hill Annual Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. He is also a Life Senior Member of the IEEE and holds a BSEE from New York University's School of Engineering and Science. Roger has worked for major electronics magazines besides Electronic Design, including the IEEE Spectrum, Electronics, EDN, Electronic Products, and the British New Scientist. He also has working experience in the electronics industry as a design engineer in filters, power supplies and control systems.

After his retirement from Electronic Design Magazine, He has been extensively contributing articles for Penton’s Electronic Design, Power Electronics Technology, Energy Efficiency and Technology (EE&T) and Microwaves RF Magazine, covering all of the aforementioned electronics segments as well as energy efficiency, harvesting and related technologies. He has also contributed articles to other electronics technology magazines worldwide.

He is a “jack of all trades and a master in leading-edge technologies” like MEMS, nanolectronics, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, military electronics, biometrics, implantable medical devices, and energy harvesting and related technologies.