How to Test a Digital Wideband Transceiver

+ VXG Microwave Signal Generator

Characterizing digital wideband transceivers using digital / RF cross-domain stimulus response

Digital-to-RF mixed devices require accurate characterization to reveal the true RF front-end performance of modern transmitters and receivers. You can achieve highly accurate frequency response measurements on digital-to-RF mixed devices using cross-domain stimulus response with a signal generator and network analyzer. In receiver measurements, the RF signal generator outputs the desired signal, and the receiver-under-test receives and digitizes the signal. Two independent systems handle these tasks. Test engineers must effectively integrate signal generation with RF instruments and signal reception with the receiver-under-test for spectral correlation. This cross-domain approach includes a wideband multi-tone stimulus capability with a wideband analysis technique to yield the device's frequency response.

To bridge the digital and RF domains, test engineers need RF signal analyzers and generators with digital data and control interfaces for the transmitters- and receivers-under-test. The test waveform (digital or RF) is precisely defined and repeatedly played for the response wave (digital or RF) and can be coherently correlated at each spectral component with the stimulus waveform. The result is vector response measurements between input and output signals within the stimulus waveform bandwidth. This cross-domain stimulus response methodology yields RF performance characteristics of digital and RF mixed devices over frequency or power ranges in one set of measurements.

Digital wideband transceiver test solution

Testing digital wideband transceivers requires solutions that bridge RF and digital domains to ensure the device specifications are accurate. The Keysight digital wideband transceiver test solution, which comprises the Keysight VXG microwave signal generator, PNA-X microwave network analyzer, and measurement and analysis software, compares digital and RF signals between device input and output and measures the transmitter and receiver responses independent from other test instrumentation. The solution enables receiver, transmitter, and transceiver measurements with a single set of connections.

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