Keysight 50-GHz handhelds support satellite, radar applications
Keysight Technologies aims to provide the measurement capability you need in the form factor of your choice. The company’s most recent initiative in this regard is today’s addition of six new millimeter-wave models to its family of FieldFox handheld analyzers. The flagship model is the industry’s first handheld combination analyzer to provide coverage to 50 GHz.
Three combination-analyzer models cover 32, 44, or 50 GHz and provide spectrum analysis, vector network analysis, and cable and antenna testing in a rugged, portable unit. The three spectrum-analyzer models cover the same frequency range.
At an interview at Keysight’s Santa Rosa headquarters, Dan Dunn, general manager for RF and microwave handheld analyzers, traced the new instruments’ ancestry back to the HP 8566B spectrum analyzer in 1978 and 8510A vector network analyzer in 1984 and on to the first FieldFox products—an RF handheld analyzer in 2008 and microwave handheld analyzer in 2012. FieldFox, he said, leverages the company’s historical measurement science capabilities and calibration expertise. FieldFox can replace three or four single-function instruments—benchtop or handheld—that are typically used for maintenance and troubleshooting of systems that operate at or above Ka-band (26.5- to 40-GHz) frequencies. They can operate for 3.5 hours on a replaceable battery. He attributed the instruments’ high performance and low power largely to the devices produced at the Santa Rosa facility’s III-V semiconductor fab.
Three combination-analyzer models cover 32, 44, or 50 GHz and provide spectrum analysis, vector network analysis, and cable and antenna testing in a rugged, portable unit. The three spectrum analyzer models cover the same frequency range.
The FieldFox family is optimized for field testing. The fully sealed enclosure (with no fans or vents) is compliant with US MIL-PRF-28800F Class 2 standards and is also type-tested to meet MIL-STD-810G requirements for operation in explosive environments (Method 511.5, Procedure 1). FieldFox analyzers are also type tested to meet IEC/EN 60529 IP53 requirements for protection from dust and water.
The analyzers offer an array of functionality that is software upgradeable, enabling users to choose the capabilities they need initially and add others later. Examples include vector voltmeter, TDR cable measurements, built-in power meter, pulse measurements, spectrum analyzer time gating, interference analyzer (with spectrogram), and GPS receiver.
Pricing starts at $28,000 for the N9950A 32-GHz FieldFox microwave combination analyzer.
