presented by: scott c. nevin r&d software engineer

Copyright © 2011 Agilent Technologies

Modular Hardware and Software

Provide the Building

Blocks for Creating Wideband

Measurement Solutions

Presented by:

Scott C. NevinR&D Software EngineerModular Product Operation, Santa Rosa, California


Agenda

2

•What is this PXI I’m hearing about?

•Typical Wideband Measurements

•Wideband Solution Space from a Modular Perspective

•The Agilent Modular Value Proposition

•Flexible, Scalable and Upgradeable Solutions

Current Solutions and Modular Possibilities


PXI Chassis & Modules

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M9018A -Chassis

PXI Module

Chassis and VSA modules

26.5GHz VSA Modules


PCI/PCIe Links and Lanes

4


PXI external controller interfaceStandard PCIe cables and components simplify external controller interconnect

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Agilent M9018 Chassis backplane

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Modular Solution Space

7

A/D Industry

-In 2004 the US Department of Defense (DoD) announced its business and technical strategy to adopt an Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) for developing new systems or modernizing existing ones. Here is a sample of the MOSA objectives taken from the Executive summary. The document further states that these edicts will be followed, where feasible.

o Adapt to evolving requirements and threats

o Leverage commercial investment

o Reduce the development cycle time and total life-cycle cost

o Enhance commonality and re-use of components among systems

o Enhance access to cutting edge technologies and products from multiple suppliers

o Mitigate the risks associated with technology obsolescence

o Mitigate the risks of a single source of supply over the life of a system

o Enhance life-cycle supportability


Modular Value

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•Modular hardware need to be designed from the perspective of breaking down the block diagram of an existing system.

• A complete VSA might become an attenuator / preselector module, a downconverter (perhaps both Rf & uW), an LO module and a Digitizer module.

• A serious attempt should be made to allow maximum re-use of these modules. In this way an LO designed for a VSA can be re-used in a VSG

•New Technology needs to be made available in module form as soon as possible.

• Customers will find a way to utilize the module if it confers enough advantage over the existing technology to make it worth the effort.

•Incremental improvements to system modules are acceptable

• Improving the performance of just one module can make for a much better system.

• For example Improving LO phase noise in a module will improve overall VSA specs


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M9360A Attenuator/Preselector Module • YIG Tuned Filter Path BW 40 MHz, 3-26.5 GHz• Through path 100 MHz-26.5 GHz• 70dB step attenuator• Switches for signal routing to RF and µWave

downconverters

M9302A LO Module• Supplies LO to downconverters• Supplies 100 MHz reference to digitizer for sampling clock

generation

M9361A Downconverter Module• Frequency Range = 2.75-26.5 GHz • IF center freq = 500 MHz• IF BW = 250 MHz• Aux input / switch for signal routing

M9351A Downconverter Module• Frequency Range = 100 MHz to 2.9 GHz• IF center freq = 500 MHz• IF BW = 40 MHz

M9202A Digitizer / Digital IF Module• 12 bit resolution• 2 GS/s max sample rate• 1 GHz max BW• Hardware digital downconversion• High speed data upload

Hardware Example – Agilent M9392A VSA


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M9392A µW VSA


Agilent Modular Products -- Building Blocks forCreating Flexible Wideband Measurement Solutions

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M9155CSwitch

M9362A-D01 Downconverter

M9210A Digitizing Scope

M9392A / M9362A-D01 Combined Hardware

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Typical Wideband Measurements

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• Parametric Measurements• Radar• Pulse rise time, fall time, overshoot, droop, PRI• Unintended AM and PM, phase noise, pulse-to-pulse amplitude and stability

• Communications• LO feed through, IQ imbalance• Unintended AM and PM, phase noise, frequency error, phase error

• ACPR, sensitivity, SNR

• Modulation• Radar• Chirp, Barker coding and frequency hopping, multichannel• Communications• EVM, throughput, channel characterization, MIMO, beam steering


Generation of Typical Wideband Measurements

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• Signal Simulation• Designing Waveforms

• When creating waveforms for the Agilent M9330A 1.25G Sa/s 15bit QARB a broad set of applications are used. These include Signal Studio, Agilent SystemVue and MATLAB. Each having its own benefits.

• Wideband RF Measurements• Up-converting baseband IQ waveforms

• The Agilent M9330A QARB is limited to generating a waveform at a bandwidth within its Nyquist sample rate.

• Upconverting radar waveforms to microwave carriers can be accomplished using the Agilent PSG (E8267D) and Option 016 – which adds wideband IQ Inputs


Wideband System Configuration

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Wideband Modular Solution Space

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•Industry trends in general predicts movement of some business from “traditional box” instruments to modular

• Particularly acute for manufacturing test systems

• High Speed - modules are an extension of the pc backplane

• Inherent Upgrade Opportunities

• Means longer useful service life since single modules upgrades can match test requirements.

• Reduced cost of ownership since complete system does not need to be replaced.

• Flexibility - Multi-vendor mix match capability and system re-configurability

• Replace Rack & Stack – reduced footprint

•Agilent modular products can directly leverage our industry leading measurement science (89601 VSA SW for example) – this measurement capability is severely lacking in competitive modular solutions.


Modular Value (A Software Perspective)

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•Modular systems use a defined software standard for instrument control and can provide support for multiple programming environments.

– IVI-COM and IVI-C

– LabVIEW, MATLAB, .NET, and C++ leverage the IVI

•Modular systems should provide a consistent look and feel across all modules or defined modular systems

– Each module has a software front panel control for manual setup and diagnostic support

– A test developer experienced on one set of modules already has the software programming skill to move to another set of modules

•A modular system should allow for the coordination and control of multiple sub-systems

– A modular system should allow the overlap of setup and acquisition of different instruments or sub-systems to minimize test times


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Typical Module Software Structure

M9360A.dll

Agilent I/O Libraries (AgVisa32.dll) Release 16

IVI-COM and IVI-C Drivers

LabVIEWDriver

Visual Studio(VB, C#, C++)

VEELabWindows/ CVI

LabVIEW

MATLABDriver

MATLABModuleSoft Front

Panels

Programming InterfacesInteractive Interface


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Typical Module Programming API


Typical Module Soft Front Panel

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M9392A Vector Signal Analyzer SW Overview

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Agilent I/O Libraries (AgVisa32.dll) Release 16

M9202A.dll M9302A.dll M9360A.dll M9361A.dll M9351A.dll

VSA “Instrument” LibraryM9392A.dll

IVI-COM and IVI-C Drivers

LabVIEWDriver

Visual Studio(VB.Net, C#,

C/C++)

VEE

LabWindows/ CVI

LabVIEW

MATLABDriver

MATLABM9392A

Soft FrontPanel

89601AVSA

Program

Programming InterfacesInteractive Interfaces


2

M9392A User Interfaces

89600A VSA Measuring 800 MHz Radar Chirp

M9392A Soft Front Panel


2

89600 VSA Software Automation

89600A (v12.0):COM API

89600B (v13.0):• Backwards-compatible COM API • Compatible with v12.0 only• Exception: LTE v13.0 only• SCPI programming ( v13.0) • .NET programming interface• New macro languages • C # and Visual Basic.NET• Internal editor or Visual Studio


Basic Control Sequence

2

M9392A

1) Set settings 2) Initiate HW Changes

Trigger

Acq Time

BW

PowerFrequency

M9392A

Initiate

Digitizer LO Attn/Pre

Downconverters

M9392A

Initiate Complete

Digitizer

LO Attn/Pre

Downconverters

Setup DUT and other HW

3) Wait for Initiate Complete


M9392A

Basic Control Sequence

2

4)Arm 5) Get Data

Arm

Digitizer

M9392A.

Get Data

Digitizer

32 bit complex pairs

Cal and post

process

Wait for DUT and other HW

Trigger happens, Data is acquired


Advanced Control Sequence for ATE

2

Settings

Initiate()

Wait for Initiate Complete()

ARM()

Wait for Data Available()

Get Data()

If no settings changed

Abort()

Actual sample rate, BW, and number of Samples available


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Physical measurem

ent

Signal Conditioning and Data Conversion

DigitalSignal

Processing

Complex measurement systems software Insight

Agilent Labs

Breakthrough TechnologyPerformance

Algorithms /

Devices

Modules

Performance Time to Market

Technology & Services

Speed Reliability Cost

Components / Sub-systems

Instruments

Optimized Performance

3- 5 Years

Functional equivalent of instruments in Modular form

Modular Value – In Summary


Solutions and Possibilities

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•Current Solutions

– Microwave VSA and other useful system modules• M9392A

• M9392A + M9155C µW switch + M9362A-D01 + M9210A

•Modular Possibilities

– This modular strategy is very attractive to system integrators who can now make far more flexible, cost effective systems for their clients• With enough of the right component modules we can create

solutions to suit any market


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Flexible, Scalable and Upgradeable Solutions • Flexible

• Being able to serve multiple needs and is easily reconfigurable

• Agilent VSA software can exist as a Digitizer only• Much of the VSA hardware could be leveraged into a VNA

product

• Scalable• Being able to coordinate multiple instances of a

measurement or sub-system

• The Agilent M9210A digitizers can be synchronized in to within one sample by using the concept of an ASBus. The ASBus connects the ADC sample clocks across multiple modules via a simple front panel adaptor

• Upgradeable• Being able to easily improve functionality or performance by

replacing discrete modular components [includes customizable FPGA]

• Improving system performance by replacing individual modules


In Summary

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• Modular products provide an level of flexibility and an upgrade path that traditional box instruments typically cannot approach

• Many manufacturing customers are migrating to modular-style instruments for improvements in speed and the reduced footprint.

• Other customers are migrating because to them Modular just makes more sense (The DoD’s move to MOSA being a case in point)

• It is likely that Modular products will have a longer useful service life because individual modules can be upgraded to improve system performance over the service life of the instrument.

• If the Modular paradigm is proving attractive on these grounds alone, then it must seem more compelling still as Agilent brings it’s industry recognized Measurement science over to its modular products


Questions?

31

Grazie! Merci!

Thank you!

presented by: scott c. nevin r&d software engineer

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