Search Application Notes & Cards
Learn how to configure Rohde & Schwarz products to fit your application. Search our database by product, technology, or application to find relevant technical documents.
Search Application Notes & Cards
Learn how to configure Rohde & Schwarz products to fit your application. Search our database by product, technology, or application to find relevant technical documents.
23 Results
The R&S®VTC/VTE video testers analyze and evaluate the quality of set-top boxes and TVs on the DUT’s A/V interfaces from a user perspective. They provide the necessary quality tests from Go/NoGo tests to long-term stability tests. The RF input signals required for the DUT are generated by the R&S®VTC/VTE.
04-Feb-2014
An FSE Spectrum Analyser equipped with the Vector Signal Analysis option (FSE-B7) can measure oscillator settling time or transmitter attack and release times with high accuracy up to 40 GHz. No additional measurement equipment is needed.
12-Feb-1999 | AN-No. 1MA15
White noise of a defined power is superimposed on the DVB signal. From the noise and the modulated DVB signal, the S/N respectively the C/N ratio in dB (with consideration of the 'roll off' factor) can be calculated. After conversion, the corresponding BER is obtained for each S/N value.
08-May-2002 | AN-No. 7BM03
When measuring the performance of 802.11 wireless LAN compatible receivers, Packet Error Rate (PER) tests are the method of choice today. This application note describes a simple way to conduct PER tests using signal generators on any 802.11 device, independent of their physical layer design (11b, 11a or 11g). The application software works with standard Windows™ drivers on any card independent of manufacturer. No additional hardware specific software is needed. Easy setup of the source signal is included with direct upload to an SMIQ or AMIQ.
09-Jan-2012 | AN-No. 1GP56
This application note is about measurement accuracy of the LCR-Meters R&S®LCX100 and R&S®LCX200. On the R&S®LCX100 and R&S®LCX200, the accuracy is calculated in real time, depending on the instrument settings and on the measured impedance. It is displayed on the lower part of the instrument display. If no test instrument is available, or information about the measurement accuracy at a certain measured impedance is sought without having a DUT at hand, this accuracy calculation tool provides the desired values.The document explains the background of the calculation and the prerequisites for installing and running the program. The installer provided installs the program on your PC.
11-May-2023 | AN-No. 1GP138
The test case wizard enables the signal generator to set up all required parameters for conformance testing of 5G NR base stations in no time with just a few clicks.
25-May-2021
An offline AC/DC switching converter has no separate bias power supply that provides power to the control integrated circuit itself. Here, an auxiliary primary winding and discrete components are added to supply power to the control circuit. Verifying this circuitry is essential and requires accurate and detailed signal level and timing measurements. The startup sequence takes a long time, which needs to be taken into consideration in the measurement and requires an instrument with sufficient memory.
23-Nov-2022
High-speed serial interfaces often transmit data with differential signaling and differential probes that can be used to access signal traces. In addition to differential inputs, these probes have a ground connection.
02-Nov-2022
Secondary surveillance radar (SSR) bridges the gap between communications systems and classic radar systems. Despite the increasing capabilities of mobile communications, SSR remains a major component in airspace surveillance. State-of-the-art methods such as Mode S reply enhance SSR with broadcast-like capabilities and enable airports in remote locations to surveil the airspace even if no radar is available. More advanced techniques such as automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) utilize the infrastructure provided by a Mode S reply transponder to provide even more information for ground control and other aircraft.
17-May-2021
The R&S®QPS quick personnel security scanner transforms people-screening technology with its high-performance, fully electronic and solidstate flat panel design that has no moving parts. The R&S®QPS improves the security screening experience and operations by having a simple open design for a spacious screening environment and unobstructed view for security personnel, making high-resolution people screening more comfortable and efficient than ever before.
15-Apr-2019
Performing precompliance measurements on power supplies requires using a line impedance stabilization network (LISN) for results that can be compared to limit values. While LISNs are standard in any precompliance lab, often no LISN is available for early R&D testing. If high accuracy is not your goal and you just need a simple tool for debugging, you can build your own LISN. Rohde & Schwarz oscilloscopes with powerful FFT analysis, are ideal for optimizing EMI filters or debugging unwanted emissions during development.
14-Jan-2021
While Mobile phones are allowed to require approximately 3 time slots for switching from transmission to reception, base stations must be able to transmit and receive at a new frequency in every time slot in the frequency hopping mode. This behaviour must of course be tested and measurements carried out on the base station transmitter and receiver. Since there is no signal generator which is able to settle at different frequencies from one to the next time slot with GSM modulation, a solution to this problem was found by linking two Signal Generators SME in such a way that they alternately provide signals at different frequencies.
01-Jul-1999 | AN-No. 1GPAN28
TDMA communications systems like GSM, DCS 1800 or PCS 1900 make effective use of the frequency spectrum by assigning several subscribers to the same frequency channel. Each subscriber has access to one predefined time slot for transmitting information. With GSM eight subscribers share one frequency channel with a bandwidth of 200 kHz. In order not to disturb the other users of the 200-kHz channel it has to be ensured that, for instance, a mobile sends in the assigned time slot only and that no power is emitted by the transmitter at other times. For this reason the transmitter power is practically switched off in the transmission intervals.
16-Jan-2002 | AN-No. 1EF18
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that no later than February 17, 2009, all analog NTSC broadcasting must come to an end. It is therefore not surprising that the demand for ATSC receivers is high at the time this application note was published. ATSC TV sets and set-tops are subject to the ATSC recommended practice Doc.A/74 “Receiver Performance Guidelines” before they can be sold freely in the markets that adopted the standard. Although the number of tests defined in Doc.A/74 is less extensive then the ones for their DVB-T counterparts (EN62002, MBRAI), some clarification is nevertheless due.
27-Sep-2012 | AN-No. 7BM71
DVB-T can be used for stationary, portable and – using the diversity technique – also mobile reception. Stationary reception via a Gaussian channel and a fixed Yagi antenna on the roof usually poses no problems. This is different with portable reception, for example on a park bench, if there are moving objects in the vicinity of the receiver that has been put up for optimal reception. These may be persons or any kind of vehicles that – while passing by the receiver - generate different types of reflections. With mobile reception, for example when driving on a motorway, poor receiving conditions have the most detrimental effect. Receiving conditions can be considerably improved by employing several antennas, a technique that is referred to as antenna diversity. This application note discusses the improvements that can be achieved with antenna diversity and explains how to simulate a DVB-T channel with the required characteristics by means of TV Test Transmitter R&S SFQ.
31-Jul-2003 | AN-No. 7BM06
With advances in digital signal processing techniques modern wireless communications systems and radar systems have become increasingly digital and more constraints have been placed on packing more information into less and less bandwidth. On the wireless side, modulation formats have become more complicated with less margin for symbol error. On the radar side, modern radar systems are trying to extract more information about the targets they track and provide the ability to track slow moving targets such as automobiles and personnel in the presence of clutter.For both communications and radar systems one of the key RF parameters that limits system performance is phase noise. As systems engineers develop new and more advanced RF systems, phase noise of oscillators and transmitters can no longer be overlooked.This application note will focus on phase noise measurements for pulsed RF carriers such as those used for radar systems. We will address some of the physical limitations relating to pulsed phase noise measurement and introduce the capabilities of the new Rohde & Schwarz FSWP phase noise analyzer.
18-May-2016 | AN-No. 1EF94
In the T&M world, instrument remote control over SNMP (simple network management protocol) lives in the shadow of IEEE/GPIB (general purpose interface bus) based remote control, and only a handful of the T&M equipment available worldwide supports the protocol. It is therefore no surprise that for most T&M engineers familiar with text-based commands over IEEE/GPIB (and lately LAN), the SNMP protocol seems a bit odd and to some even complex at first. The SNMP Toolkit for LabVIEW™ from Viodia™ Inc. can save a considerable amount of development time and furthermore helps programmers to overcome the initial complexities of SNMP programming.
18-Oct-2007 | AN-No. 7BM70
based on SCPI command sequences
MINX – the Measurement Instrument Network eXplorer – is a fast, non-invasive discovery and configuration software from Rohde & Schwarz for LAN and USB T&M instruments.Agnostic of instrument model or manufacturer, MINX provides an intuitive graphical user interface with access to powerful configuration, control, results collection and remote display functions.Test or research engineers can quickly setup a collection of instruments to initialise, measure and download results. Universities can configure and manage many instruments together, copying instruments and saving class setups.Besides these core functions, MINX provides an extension mechanism making even more sophisticated instrument operations available by just the click of a single button. Such extended functions are SCPI-based command sequences which can be added by the user on a per-instrument basis and require no software update.This application note describes the different kind of extendable function groups. It will be pointed out how extended functions can be added or edited and which format the script must comply in order to get directly available in MINX.
12-Jan-2021 | AN-No. GFM344
Receiver diversity improves reception quality by using multiple antennas with a preferably low correlation factor between each other. This results in a more robust handling of multipath signals, since a deep fade will then not affect all received signals at the same time. However, the compact dimensions of handheld devices can introduce unwanted correlation due to their dense antenna spacing. In this case, the popular diversity test setup consisting of several independent transmitters will no longer serve the needs of a realistic simulation, since correlation effects have to be taken into account here. A clever solution is to operate the R&S®SFU in split-fading mode in combination with a second transmitter. This can be another R&S®SFU, the R&S®SFE, the R&S®SFE100 or the R&S®SMU200A. In this way, two diversity signals of adjustable correlation for any common broadcast standard are coded in realtime, while their individual multipath profile is precisely specified by the extensive features of the R&S®SFU fader module.
19-Oct-2012 | AN-No. 7BM76
Widespread adoption of higher order modulation schemes, larger signal bandwidths and higher operating frequencies, to enable higher data throughput in communication links like 5G, places increasingly tough demands on the frontend. Signal fidelity is often enhanced with linearization.The greater number of RF chains and signal bandwidth in 5G Frontends mean that DPD (Digital Pre-Distortion) may no longer be the default linearization choice; 5G Frontends will be completely different from their 4G predecessors.The key metrics of Efficiency, Linearity, Bandwidth and Output Power remain, as does the question of how to optimally create the signal with just enough fidelity and power, with a minimum of wasted power. The solution set to that question, however, has never been greater.Amongst other topics, this White Paper, (i) proposes a classification of Linearization schemes, (ii) introduces the hard limiter, (iii) illustrates linearization of an exemplary mmWave PA using non-DPD techniques, and (iv) introduces a class of linearized transmitters that create their signal and linearity from efficiently generated components.
25-Feb-2016 | AN-No. 1MA269
Radio frequencies in bands around 28 GHz are being discussed as candidates for mobile communications of the fifth generation (5G). Beam steering will be a key feature in the context of 5G. It will be a major challenge to test the beam steering capabilities of base stations and user equipment in every phase from research and development through production. Conducted measurements will be mainly replaced by over-the-air measurements of electromagnetic radiation. Rohde & Schwarz offers the R&S®NRPM Over-the-Air (OTA) Power Measurement Solution that perfectly fits such measurement needs.Part of this solution are the R&S®NRPM-A66 antenna modules. They have integrated diode detectors. Thus, there are no cables between the antenna and the detector as in traditional setups. This avoids high and potentially unknown RF losses. The R&S®NRPM-A66 antenna modules with their integrated diode detectors are factory calibrated, which means that the user does not have to calibrate them to achieve highly accurate measurement results.This application note contains theoretical background on OTA power and pattern measurements. It gives step-by-step instructions for the verification of the power level and the radiation pattern of a device under test (DUT) in comparison to a golden device, and it presents an approach for verifying the accuracy of beam steering.
29-Aug-2017 | AN-No. 1GP118
RF interference is one of the largest contributors to poor network performance. It shows up in dropped calls and low data throughput rates. Traditionally, interference hunting means you get a list of sites with bad performance from an OSS. This defines the areas for interference hunting quite well.If, however, the problem remains after attempts at mitigation, it could be because other sources often mask symptoms of RF interference. Usually the strongest masking is due to the overlap between the interference signal and your network's signals. Analysis could involve complete cities or even countries, an error-prone task when using traditional spectrum analyzers and/or portable receivers and one that consumes a significant amount of time and budget.A more automated solution for larger areas can make the effort involved more manageable. The Rohde & Schwarz network scanner family (R&S®TSME, R&S®TSMA and R&S®TSMW) plus the network problem analyzer (NPA) feature of the R&S®ROMES4 measurement software is such a solution. It allows you to perform a fast drive test with a fleet of cars and collect spectrum data for your targeted or even complete network area in next to no time. Back at your office, the NPA tells you where to send dedicated interference hunting teams with an analyzer or receiver to track down the source of interference. This paper introduces the approach in detail.
02-Oct-2017 | AN-No. 1MA293
Almost every switched-mode power supply (SMPS) needs an EMI (Electro Magnetic Interference) input filter to suppress any disturbances of the SMPS on the power lines. This requirement having an input filter in the design ensures that no negative effect will occur in other parts of the systems connected to the power lines. Therefore, the design and the validation of the input filter is a major task during a typical power supply design. The conducted emission (CE) test according to a specific standard is a suitable and a common validation method to release the design at the end of the development cycle. Nowadays, this conducted emission test will be performed as pre-compliance test during the development phase in the lab as well. In this case, the designer will obtain an early feedback whether the design has to be optimized regarding any disturbances present on the power lines. In most cases, the designer has to adjust the input filter to obtain a more effective suppression of disturbances generated by the SMPS. However, the designer needs to know details about the noise spectrum to optimize the input filter as effective as possible. In addition to magnitude and frequency information of the noise source, it would be very helpful to know whether the noise is generated by a common mode source or by a differential mode source. During the standard conducted emission test, common and differential mode noise is a combination in the measurement results and thus not possible to gain deeper insights. This document will describe a method to separate common-mode and differential-mode separation using two oscilloscope channels. This separation approach works without any additional hardware component like a noise separator. The designer will be able to distinguish between common-mode (CM) and differential-mode (DM) noise. This additional information about the dominant mode provides the capability to optimize input filters very efficiently.
17-Sep-2020 | AN-No. GFM353