E-band option can lower test costs

24th November 2015

Mick Elliott

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An E-band option for its ShockLine MS46500B series of 2- and 4-port performance Vector Network Analysers (VNAs) that addresses the market need to lower cost-of-test for E-band components has been introduced by Anritsu. With the option installed, the VNA series can reduce production costs and more efficiently verify the performance of high-frequency passive components, such as antennas, filters, and duplexers, during manufacturing.

In addition to the E-band frequency capability, Anritsu also introduces 20GHz and 40GHz options for the ShockLine MS46500B series. With these options, the VNAs address the S-parameter and time-domain measurement requirements associated with microwave applications.

With the 55 GHz to 92 GHz E-band frequency option, the MS46500B delivers a combination of high performance and economy. Available in both 2- and 4-port configurations, it extends the frequency coverage of the ShockLine VNA family and makes the VNA ideal for testing mm-wave passive components used in 5G small cell networks, driver assistance/collision avoidance radar, near- and far-field antenna, and personal communication applications.

The new 20GHz and 40GHz options add power control, LRL/LRM calibration and other capabilities previously unavailable in ShockLine microwave VNAs. The MS46500B, with the microwave options, is ideal for testing components used in network equipment, automotive, signal integrity, and system integration applications. The VNAs are particularly well suited for integration into measurement systems, due to typical dynamic range of 120dB to 40GHz, full remote programming capability and a small 3U rack-mountable package.

The 2-port MS46522B and 4-port MS46524B VNAs use the same software, command syntax, drivers, and programming environments as the other ShockLine instruments. This feature enables reuse of program code written for ShockLine family VNAs on the E-band and microwave instruments with little or no alteration.

The software also provides a powerful graphical user interface (GUI) for manual test environments. When attached to a user-supplied touchscreen monitor, the full-featured GUI provides comprehensive capabilities, including network extraction, embedding/de-embedding networks, and time domain with gating.

Developing and troubleshooting test programs is made easier with advanced marker functionality, limit lines, and other features of the software.