10x Faster, 30x Cleaner, and Phase Noise Too?

PNA-X DDS Enhancements

February 27, 2024 | 5:00 AM EST

The Keysight DDS source makes phase and group delay measurements 10 times faster with noise in the trace reduced by a factor of 30. Further, the DDS has virtually no spurs and very low phase noise, meaning it is easier to see close-in spurious caused by an internal local oscillator (LO) to the frequency converter. 

This webinar showcases enhancements that have greatly improved the ability of the Keysight PNA and PNA-X to characterize frequency converters and mixers.  

During this session, you’ll gain insights into the following:

• The phase-noise measurement application, which, when using the DDS synthesizer as an LO, enables direct measurement of the phase noise of a frequency converter with an embedded LO. 
• The DDS system, which provides an optional third source (up to 13.5 GHz) that can drive an LO of a mixer while applying two tones (combined internally from ports 1 and 3) to measure IMD.
• The modulation / distortion application with measurements on frequency converters. 
• The method of source digital pre-distortion that enables the creation of very wideband signals (up to 4 GHz or more) with nearly perfect error vector magnitude, even when driven at high powers. 

Additional Resources

Webinar: Network Analyzer Phase Noise Measurements View/Download

Presenter

Dr. Joel Dunsmore

Keysight R&D Fellow

Since graduating from Oregon State University with an MSEE (1983), Joel Dunsmore has worked for Keysight Technologies (formerly Agilent and Hewlett-Packard) at the Santa Rosa Site. He received his Ph.D. from Leeds University in 2004. He is a Keysight R&D Fellow focused on component test. He was a principal contributor to the HP 8753 and PNA family of network analyzers, with recent work in non-linear test, including differential devices, and mixer measurements, as well as modulated and spectrum measurements. He was principally responsible for many of fundamental algorithm designs in the PNA applications including the frequency converter, spectrum-analyzer, gain compression, IQ, and Hot S-parameter measurements. He has received 33 patents related to this work, and authored the “Handbook of Microwave Component Measurements, 2nd Edition (John Wiley, 2020)”. He is a senior member in the IEEE and MTT, as well as an executive committee member of the Automated RF Techniques Group (ARFTG).