Solutions for

Wideband Radar and Satcom

Measurments
Using wide bandwidth oscilloscopes to directly
measure and analyze X, Ku, and Ka-band Radar
and Satcom transmitter outputs up to 62 GHz

Application Brief

Overview Problem
A growing trend in Satellite communication Quickly, accurately and cost-effectively measuring
(Satcom) and Radar systems in the aerospace the performance of RF/microwave transmitters
and defense market is the need for increased in today’s Radar and Satcom applications is a
signal and analysis bandwidth and processing challenging task. In some cases (e.g., to measure
gain. Satcom systems are being driven by a Satcom transmitter’s Error Vector Magnitude
demands for increased data rates, while modern (EVM)), the transmitter output can’t always be
Radar systems require more processing gain to measured directly. Engineers often have to rely
improve range resolution, which in turn drives on custom-built down-converter hardware to
wider modulation bandwidths. Modern Radar down-convert the RF/microwave frequencies to
systems also employ more complex pulse an IF frequency that can then be measured with
modulation signal formats to improve range commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) test equipment.
resolution and lower the probability of intercept
and jamming. Many Radar and Satcom systems Unfortunately, the non-recurring engineering
operate at microwave frequencies (e.g., X, Ku costs associated with designing, building and
and Ka bands), which helps to support wider testing the hardware can be counterproductive.
modulation bandwidths, increased capacity, and The down-converter hardware also adds its
also offers the benefit of smaller antennas. own RF impairments that can mask the actual
performance of the RF/microwave transmitter
In some cases, the wide bandwidths required under test. Moreover, distortion may occur that
exceed the intermediate frequency (IF) band- contributes to the overall EVM being measured,
widths of commercially available RF spectrum making it difficult to discern how much EVM is
analyzers and vector (or FFT) signal analyzers. from the actual transmitter output. With no other
Coupled with the higher operating frequencies, available option, many RF engineers are left
this creates a significant set of challenges for RF with the measurement accuracy uncertainty that
engineers testing Radar and Satcom transmitters. comes from this less than ideal approach.
Solution
The answer to this dilemma lies in finding The wide-bandwidth oscilloscope allows of about 5 GHz enables it to be used as
a solution that enables direct measure- RF engineers to directly measure and both an I/Q baseband and IF generator.
ment and analysis of the RF/microwave analyze wideband Radar and Satcom
transmitter’s output, without the need for transmitter outputs. With up to 33 GHz and The PSG signal generator delivers high
custom down-converter hardware. An ideal 62 GHz of analog bandwidth respectively, quality test signals. Wideband IQ inputs
solution for this task is the wide-bandwidth the 90000 X-Series and 90000 Q-Series make it ideal for use with wideband Radar
oscilloscope, which can directly measure deliver real-time measurement accuracy and Satcom measurements. When the PSG
and analyze X-, Ku- and Ka-band signals for direct measurement of transmitter and M8190A are combined, they provide
(up to 62 GHz) from today’s Radar and outputs—without the need for external the flexibility necessary to create custom/
Satcom transmitters. Using the wide- down-conversion hardware. Time-domain proprietary Radar signals and wideband
bandwidth oscilloscope not only eliminates analysis can be performed to measure modulated signals (e.g., QPSK and 16QAM)
the time and cost associated with use of transmitter pulsed-RF characteristics (e.g., for Satcom applications. These signals can
custom down-converter hardware, but also rise time, fall time and pulse width). be used for device under test (DUT) testing
relieves the engineer from having to deal in the lab environment, without the need
with other issues such as hardware calibra- The M8190A is a modular instrument pack- for costly custom test equipment.
tion, corrections for system impairments aged in the AXIe form factor. It is used to
generate the wideband waveforms needed When used for component DUT testing, the
and uncertainty in measurement results. M8190A generates wideband IQ signals
to test today’s emerging Radar and Satcom
Other aspects of wideband Radar and systems. As a precision 1- or 2-channel that are fed into the PSG’s wideband
Satcom measurements that typically pose AWG with a DAC resolution of 14 bits up IQ inputs. The PSG then generates the
some level of difficulty for RF engineers to 8 GS/s and 12 bits up to 12 GS/s (2 to microwave test signal that will be used
include: 4 bits more than what’s currently available as DUT stimulus. Next, the DUT’s output
• Creation of custom/proprietary wide- today), it offers excellent signal performance. is connected to the wide-bandwidth
bandwidth signals. Traditionally, creating The M8190A also includes up to 2 GSa oscilloscope where the Radar and Satcom
such signals for transmitter testing has of waveform memory per channel (a 30X measurements are made (Figure 1). To
been difficult since often times they are improvement over commercially available measure a standalone transmitter, the RF
not supported with COTS equipment. As AWGs), which allows engineers to build engineer simply connects the oscilloscope
a result, engineers are forced to develop long, realistic scenarios such as radar simula- directly to the transmitter output.
custom test equipment, a costly and tions. An output path with a 3 dB bandwidth
time-consuming proposition.
• Analysis of custom/proprietary wide-band-
width signals. Radar and Satcom signal
formats may be custom or proprietary,
and may require some level of custom
signal analysis.

Finding a COTS test solution that can create

and analyze custom/proprietary signals
with integrated software is therefore
paramount.

One such solution comes from Agilent

Technologies and encompasses the Infiniium FIGURE 1: Shown here is the typical hardware test setup used to create and analyze wideband
Radar and Satcom signals. An M8190A wide bandwidth AWG is shown on the upper-left, a PSG
90000 X-Series (up to 33 GHz) or 90000 with wideband I/Q inputs is shown on the lower-left, and a wide bandwidth 90000 X-Series
Q-Series (up to 62 GHz) high-performance oscilloscope with VSA software is shown on the right.
oscilloscope, PSG vector signal generator,
M8190A arbitrary waveform generator
(AWG), and Vector Signal Analysis (VSA)
software. Together, these solutions provide
RF engineers with the capabilities and flex-
ibility they need to perform wideband Radar
and Satcom measurements.
2
Custom/Proprietary Measurements
Creating custom/proprietary waveforms and Custom Perform
Scope MATLAB additional scope
MATLAB
performing custom/proprietary measure- waveform applied trace measurements
function
ments on Radar and Satcom applications is
a task that can be made significantly easier
using MATLAB. It can be used for signal
RF pulse envelope extracted from Drop pre-configured scope
generation to create simulated waveforms custom MATLAB function measurements on displayed envelope
that are then downloaded to the M8190A
AWG. Here, they are synthesized into
differential IQ waveforms that are fed into
the external I/Q inputs on the PSG signal
generator. The modulated RF/microwave
test signals are then generated. Measure RF pulse rise time
Measu

Custom, user-defined MATLAB functions can

also be used inside the 90000 X-Series and FIGURE 2: Pulsed RF envelope and rise time measurements performed on the envelope.

90000 Q-Series oscilloscope and applied

to the trace waveform (e.g., to calculate
the pulsed RF envelope) so the pulsed RF
waveform envelope can be measured and
displayed. Pre-configured oscilloscope
measurements are used to measure the rise LFM chirped spectrum
time, fall time, pulse width, and overshoot on centered at 10 GHz
Chirped phase
RF radar pulses (Figure 2). In this case, the
deep capture memory (2 GSa) available on
X and Q-Series oscilloscopes plays a critical
2 GHz
role in allowing it to capture and analyze a
large number of radar pulses.
Segmented memory further optimizes the
number of radar pulses that can be captured
2 GHz
Log magnitude envelope
and analyzed with the available oscilloscope amplitude vs. time
memory. Essentially, it enables the user to
zoom in on a pulse and capture only the Chirped frequency
6 us
“ON” time of the pulse, while ignoring the
“OFF” time of the pulse. Note that while
segmented memory can be used with
MATLAB user defined functions, this capa- FIGURE 3: Shown here is a wide-bandwidth LFM chirped Radar measurement using the VSA software on
bility is not available with the VSA software. the 90000X oscilloscope.

Easing Migration to the access to the oscilloscope’s wide-bandwidth to measure characteristics like the RF/
Oscilloscope capabilities, which enables measurements up microwave spectrum, frequency and phase
to 62 GHz for wideband Radar and Satcom characteristics (e.g. chirped phase and
While spectrum analyzer and vector signal
applications. frequency or frequency hopping charac-
analyzers have traditionally been used for
teristics displayed on a RF spectro- gram),
RF testing, the challenges with performing With its familiar user-interface, the VSA
and EVM (Figure 3). In addition, the VSA
today’s Radar and Satcom measurements software enables RF engineers to specify
software supports many signal standards
have become a catalyst for RF engineers traditional RF parameters (e.g., frequency
and modulation types, to demodulate signal
migrating to wide-bandwidth oscilloscopes. span and resolution bandwidth) on the
formats such as QPSK, 16QAM and 64 QAM
Fortunately, Agilent’s VSA software runs inside oscilloscope. It then processes the data
for Satcom and other applications. Such
90000 X and Q-Series oscilloscopes and helps from the oscilloscope and displays the
analysis provides the engineer with greater
ease this migration by providing RF engineers digitized results using vector signal analyzer
visibility into the actual Radar and Satcom
the best of both worlds: the functionality and amplitude and phase displays. VSA software
transmitter hardware performance.
user-interface of a vector signal analyzer, and can also perform frequency-domain analysis
3
Example: Wideband 16QAM
In addition to Radar measurements, the Recall that EVM is an indicator for
same COTS test equipment can be used for amplitude and phase distortion of a digitally
a range of different applications, including modulated signal. In this case, the residual
wideband communications. Consider the EVM is approximately 1.17%, which is
example of a 1.76 GHz wide-bandwidth quite good for a 1.76 GHz wide modulated
16QAM signal. It is created and analyzed waveform at X-band (10 GHz). In contrast,
using the COTS test setup shown in with existing equipment, the EVM that can
Figure 1. MATLAB is used to generate a be achieved at this data rate is typically
16QAM waveform that is downloaded to only around 2 to 3 percent, which results in
the M8190A AWG. As shown in Figure 4, significantly higher measurement error and
VSA software running on the oscilloscope is uncertainty.
used to demodulate the 16QAM waveform.

Wideband digital
modulation:
QAM16, 1.76 G Sym/s

Fs = 7.2 GHz EVM = 1.17%

with amplitude
corrections

FIGURE 4: The four quadrants of the VSA display show the constellation diagram (top, left), the 10 GHz X-band spectrum
(bottom, left), the EVM versus time (top, right) and the EVM summary on the bottom right. In this example, the residual EVM
performance is a combination of the AWG, PSG with wideband IQ inputs, and 32 GHz digital oscilloscope.

Summary of Results
Using external down-conversion hardware ated using MATLAB and then downloaded
to measure wide-bandwidth Radar and to the M8190A AWG, combined with a PSG
Satcom transmitter performance can be a signal generator, to create the test signal.
costly and time-consuming task. It may not With these oscilloscopes, the transmitter’s
be optimal in gaining visibility into the RF/ output can be measured using Agilent’s VSA
microwave transmitter’s true performance. software, a MATLAB user-defined function
Agilent’s 90000 X-Series and 90000 or the oscilloscope’s built-in time-domain
Q-Series oscilloscopes provide RF engineers analysis capabilities. With today’s Radar and
a viable alternative; a means of directly Satcom applications employing wider band-
measuring and analyzing the performance widths and higher frequencies, direct and
of RF/microwave transmitters for Radar and accurate measurement of the transmitter’s
Satcom applications. The oscilloscope can be output using the 90000 X-Series or 90000
combined with the M8190A AWG and PSG Q-Series oscilloscope has become essential
signal generator, which together can create in gaining insight into the transmitter’s true
and analyze physical test signals. Custom/ performance, saving time and helping to
proprietary signal waveforms can be gener- mitigate costly design re-work.
4
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Product specifications and descriptions

in this document subject to change
without notice.

© Agilent Technologies, Inc.

2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
Published in USA, June 19, 2013
5990-6353EN