The Four Ws of Adjacent Channel Power Are you a good spectral citizen? Note from Ben Zarlingo: This is the third in our series of guest posts by Nick Ben, a Keysight engineer. In this post he provides an overview of adjacent channel power, a... 
RF Interference Will Hobble Us Before the Spectrum Apocalypse Arrives Spectrum crowding is bad, but I think interference is worse He’s guilty of some degree of hyperbole, but Lou Frenzel highlights a fundamental issue in his recent column Spectrum Apocalypse: The Coming Dea... Keeping up with Measurement “Fundamentals” While some are timeless, others evolve This post will be brief, partly a consequence of the wildfires that have affected the Santa Rosa headquarters of Keysight and modified all our schedules, at least a littl... Dawn of the Vector Signal Analyzer A new RF tool leveraged two evolving technologies These days, vector signal analyzers (VSAs) are in broad use, especially in wireless, aerospace, and defense applications. They’re essential for designing ... Engineering Answers to a Failure of Intuition Even great minds fail sometimes, but we can revise our mental models Though this blog is created by a company that makes hardware and software, the core of our work—and yours—is problem solving and ... Unintended Oscillations and Interference Problems Avoiding extra functionality in your circuits A common saying among electrical engineers is that if you want an oscillator, try building an amplifier. This is all too often accurate, and unwanted oscillations i... One Solution to Complexity: Focus on the Most Common Measurement Errors A pre-filter to manage an excess of information In the first two decades of the modern spectrum analyzer—say from the 1960s to the 1980s—it was arguably possible for an RF engineer to know almost ev... Better Millimeter-wave Measurements with New Preselection Technology When gems turn to coal, engineers get creative Despite their flaws, I have described YIG preselector filters as the gems in microwave signal analyzers. These preselectors solve a problem created when mixers are... Measurement Techniques and Strategies for the Interference of Things Bring your best engineering game, and use all the measurement tools available The term Internet of Things (IoT) has been around a few years, and sometimes it feels over-hyped. When some folks start musing breat... First Words Spoken on the Moon: Probably Not What You Think How about “ACA out of detent” Some people of my generation viewed the 1960s race to the Moon as an alternative to a military conflict, with the astronauts as the point of the spear. They were the sp... Improving ACPR Measurements with the Tukey Window Making other windows seem a little wasteful A proverb that’s perhaps 2,000 years old describes the mills of the gods as “grinding slowly but exceedingly fine.” I’d like to flatter myself... Millimeter Measurements: Beware of Changes in Connector Scale Taking extra care in the lands of the large and the small Recently, I found myself peering at a dial indicator while checking the blade runout on my shiny new 12-inch miter saw. I’m putting up new trim in... It’s RF interference again… The case of the troublesome garage door opener Note from Ben: This is the first in a series of guest posts from Jennifer Stark of Keysight. As discussed here earlier, our increasingly crowded RF environ... Impressive Mechanisms, Impressive Explanations Engineers that exemplify creativity, and the ability to explain it School is out and some are on holiday. It’s a good time to briefly widen this blog’s technology focus a bit with one of my occasion... Measuring ACPR: Adding Voltage or Adding Power? Coherence can make a big difference Sometimes The Fates of Measurement smile upon you, and sometimes they conspire against you. In many cases, however, it’s hard to tell which—if either—is hap... Spotting Difficult Noise Figure Measurements A quick, intuitive look at what will make them challenging Noise is fundamental in much of what RF engineers do, and it drives cost/performance tradeoffs in major ways. If you’ve read this blog much, you&... The Four Ws of Noise Figure If you're going to optimize it you have to quantify it Note from Ben Zarlingo: This is the second in our series of guest posts by Nick Ben, a Keysight engineer. Here he turns his attention to the f... Phase Noise and Distortion Measurements Originally posted May 3, 2016 Understanding how it limits dynamic range and what to do about it A talented RF engineer and friend of mine is known for saying “Life is a microcosm of phase noise.&... Voltage and Power Add Differently: Understanding Signal Power Measurement The difference can be anything from 0 dB to infinity Most RF engineers are aware that signal measurements are always a combination of the signal in question and any contributions from the measuring device. We u... Better Measurements at Centimeter and Millimeter Bands Handling the frequency and bandwidth challenges of 5G, radar, and more 5G technologies and markets are much in the news these days, and for good reasons. The economic potential is large, the opportunities are r...