Advantages of PXI

The 3030A RF digitizer offers significant economies compared to

general purpose rack and stack instruments without compromising

performance. In part this is achieved by exploiting the benefits of the

PXI specification, an industry standard open architecture for modu-

lar instrumentation. Using PXI enables faster measurement speed,

smaller size and greater flexibility for easier system integration and

future system evolution.

Applications

The RF Digitizer is an essential component within any development

or manufacturing RF test system designed around the needs of

advanced digital communications standards as used in WLAN,

WMAN and cellular communications. The 3030A is equally benefi-

cial for applications in satellite and terrestrial broadcasting and mili-

tary communications. Whether the application is for test, measure-

ment or system emulation, the 3030A delivers the functionality and

performance required. When used in conjunction with other Aeroflex

PXI RF modules, complete RF test systems can be designed. The

3030A RF digitizer is complementary to the 3020 series digital RF

signal generators which can provide wideband linear modulated RF

signal generation up to 6 GHz with integrated dual channel arbitrary

waveform generator.

Performance Highlights

Wide Frequency Range: The 3030A provides continuous frequen-

cy coverage from 330 MHz to 3 GHz with 1 Hz resolution. This sat-

isfies the requirements for all mobile phone operating bands as well

as WLAN, WLAN licenced and unlicenced bands below 3 GHz.

Level Range: Full dynamic range is provided for signal input pow-

ers up to +10 dBm peak. The maximum safe input range is extend-

ed to + 22 dBm (with 8 dB input attenuation selected). With a noise

spectral density specification of –145 dBm/Hz, the 3030A is able to

discern very low level signals, especially useful when measuring

transmitter spurious outputs. RF Input level control is provided

using reliable, fast electronic switched attenuation selectable in small

4 dB steps to help maximize the useable dynamic range.

Level Accuracy: The 3030A is ideal for making accurate RF power

measurements in high volume manufacturing. A typical 0.3 dB total

measurement uncertainty together with <0.05 dB repeatability error

ensures that a high yield can be maintained.

High Dynamic Range: The 3030A is purpose designed for difficult

transmitter measurements such as burst power and spectral emis-

sions on WLAN/WMAN, 2G and 3G cellular terminals. With a spec-

tral density of –145 dBm/Hz, 3030A is able to measure steep power

ramps as generated by 2G, 3G and WLAN/WMAN radio transmis-

sion equipment. For GSM type signals, power ramps of 80dB can be

measured. The digitizer typically provides 75 dB of spurious free

dynamic range and 75 dB intermodulation free dynamic range. This

together with excellent phase noise performance makes it possible to

measure an ACLR of typically 68 dB on 3G terminals. Frequency con-

version is performed using a highly linear single stage down convert-

er which offers a TOI of +30 dBm and low conversion loss.

Wide Bandwidth: The 3030A provides a bandwidth of 36 MHz with

phase and amplitude correction across 33 MHz. This can help

improve measurement speed by making it possible to use a single

capture to acquire multiple carriers or wide band width modulated

signals such as used in emerging WLAN standards.

Low Phase Noise: The 3030A module is designed to be used either

with a PXI 3010 or 3011 RF synthesizer module. This provides a low

noise agile local oscillator signal from which the 3030A phase noise is

defined. Phase noise at 20 kHz offset from carrier is typically

-115 dBc/Hz at 2 GHz while he noise floor from 10 MHz offset is typ-

ically –138 dBc/Hz. Frequency settling can be achieved in typically

250 µs, (3010 opt 01 fitted) making the 3030A ideal for high pro-

ductivity RFIC testing.

IF Input: The 3030A will accept a direct IF input signal at

77.76 MHz with a maximum input level of +10 dBm.

Flexible ADC: Full rate digital IF or decimated IQ data can be

streamed via a LVDS data interface on the front panel. This is espe-

cially useful for realtime system emulation applications. Data can also

be captured to internal memory then read over the PCI bus. Internal

memory provides storage for up to 128 M x 16 bit samples of IF data

sampled at 103.68 Msamples per second, equivalent to 1.2 seconds.

The sample rate is user defined and independent of the sampling

clock over the range 6.328 ks/s to 85 Ms/s. Lowering the sample rate

improves data transfer rates and allows much longer events to be cap-

tured.

Small Size: The 3030A is unparalleled in terms of size. The mod-

ule occupies just 2 slots in a 3U PXI rack. An additional slot is

required to accommodate the 3010 RF synthesizer making a total of

just 3 slot widths required for a complete RF digitizer.

Acquisition, Data Transfer and Measurement Speed: Data

acquisition, data transfer and measurement processing can be per-

formed serially or overlapped. New data acquisition can be initiated in

parallel to processing a previous capture sample thus leading to faster

measurement time. Data transfer time to the CPU is performed at a

rate of up to 20 MSamples/s (IF data) or 10 Million IQ pairs per sec-

ond while measurement processing time varies according to CPU

speed and the application.

Triggering and Synchronization: The 3030A module can fre-

quency lock to a 10 MHz reference signal supplied by the 3010.

The 3030A supports external trigger sources. Triggers can be applied

either from the PXI backplane or directly through the front panel

LVDS and TTL interfaces.

The 3030A is able to initiate data capture based on an internal IF trig-

ger derived from sample data. IF triggering can be set as absolute,

with a user defined threshold level, or relative in which case a power

change results in trigger activation. Both trigger modes have settable

time constants for noise filtering making it possible to avoid false

triggering on transients. All trigger modes are supported by user

definable pre- and post trigger delays. 3030 data acquisition is also

able to be gated. The sample length is then defined by the duration

of the externally applied gate.

List Mode: This feature enables the 3030A to be preloaded with up

to 128 combinations of different frequency and level settings. All

3030A internal hardware settings are pre-calculated making re-selec-

tion of a new frequency and level possible in typically 250 µs, (3010 opt

01 fitted) while still maintaining level accuracy. This feature is ideal-

ly suited for fast mobile phone transmitter alignment applications and

is complimented by similar features in the 3020 series RF Signal

Generator in support of the corresponding fast mobile phone receiv-

er alignment.