Redefining RF and Microwave Instruments
RF Engineering Experience NI s Investment in RF & Microwave Test Research and Development (R&D): More than 15 times the R&D investment in RF & Microwave since 2003 RF & Microwave R&D in 6 global locations AWR, Phase Matrix, Signalion and Ettus Research Support and Services: Global Application and Systems Support Extensive System Deployment Services Products: Pioneered RF in PXI form factor Over 60 RF & Microwave Products 2
Todays Agenda Time: Session: 9:30-10:15 KEYNOTE: Redefining RF and Microwave Instruments - a Single Platform for Radio Test, RADAR, SATCOM and Signal Intelligence 10:15-11.00 Real-Time Analysis and Recording of RF and Microwave Signals Off the Air With PXI Instruments - Leveraging PCI Express and FPGA's 11:30-12.15 Bridging the Gap From Design to Test With NI Software Defined Radio Platforms 12.15-13:00 Decreasing the Design-Validation Cycle, Moving from Design to Validation to Production 13:30-15:30 Hands-On RF Instruments in PXI 3
The Test Equipment Challenge In the communication industry, technological innovation occurs at a rapid pace and although this drives the market, the lack of standardization poses a challenge for vendors Test equipment vendors are under constant pressure to keep pace with the latest technology. Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Vijay Mathew 4
Emergence of the Multi-Radio SOC BroadcomBCM4317 First single-chip Wi-Fi solution (802.11b) TI WiLink 6.0 First integrated A-GPS + Bluetooth + FM Broadcom BCM4325 First integrated WLAN + FM + Bluetooth chip Sep-2003 Aug-2006 Mar-2008 Apr-2008 Dec-2008 Feb-2010 Marvell 88W8688 First Bluetooth + WiFI single chip GCT GDM7215 First integrated Wi-Fi + WiMAX chip TI WiLink 7.0 First integrated 802.11a/b/g/n + FM + Bluetooth + GPS Chip 5
1970s Moore s Law Is 2012 6
1970s Moore s Law Is Not 2012 7
Building the Perfect RF & Microwave Instrument The Expectations image couresy of Wade Lowdermilk, BAE Systems 8
More Functionality image couresy of Wade Lowdermilk, BAE Systems 9
Smaller Footprint image couresy of Wade Lowdermilk, BAE Systems 10
Reduced Cost image couresy of Wade Lowdermilk, BAE Systems 11
Accelerated Delivery image couresy of Wade Lowdermilk, BAE Systems 12
ATE Life Cycle Stages Commercial Demand 4-7 Years Military demand lags commercial demands Reduced budget Impacted weapon system acquisition Forced to extend the life of legacy systems Government Demand: Up to 25+ Years Reductions in acquisition of replacement systems. Product Life Cycle Data Model, American Standard ANSI/EIA-724, September 19, 1997. 13
Longer Life-Cyles Drive Change In 2002, the DoD began articulating the need for a more flexible, software-centric approach to fielding Automatic Test Equipment. Recent commercial technology allows for the development of synthetic instruments that can be configured in real time to perform various test functions.a single synthetic instrument can replace numerous single function instruments thereby reducing the logistics footprint and solving obsolescence problems. - Report to US Congress on the activities of the DoD Office of Technology Transition, February 2002 Goals: Reduce Total Cost of Ownership of Automatic Test Systems Reduce Time to Develop and Field new or upgraded ATS Provide Greater Flexibility to the warfighter through U.S. and coalition partner interoperable ATS Reduce Test System logistics footprint Reduce Physical footprint Improve Quality of Test 14
National Instruments Graphical system design combines graphical programming software with modular hardware, leveraging the latest technologies Low-Cost Modular Measurement and Control Hardware Productive Software Development Tools Highly Integrated Systems Platforms 15
The Expectations More Functionality Reduced Cost Smaller Footprint Accelerated Delivery 16
PXI = Commercial Off The Shelf Technology PXI Controller Win, Linux, RT ADEs Multicore Integrated MXI Chassis System monitoring Flotherm cooling HALT testing Custom Pwr Supplies PXI Backplane Bus Technology Timing Synchronization PCI Express Differential trigger 10/100 MHz clock System Services System-level assembly & test High availability & extended lifetime agreements Peripheral Slots PXI & PXI Express hybrid slots > 1500 PXI modules from > 70 vendors 17
Fraction of the Size of Traditional Solutions The World s First Vector Signal Transceiver Less than 1/10th the size 18
Demonstration Vector Signal Transceiver 19
Up to 5 Signal Analyzers and Generators in a Single PXI Express Chassis MIMO Configurations Parallel Multi-DUT Test Shared LO Shared ADC Clock 20
Case Study: Qualcomm Qualcomm Atheros is the networking and connectivity subsidiary of Qualcomm, Inc. Leading provider of wired and wireless technologies Serving mobile, computing, consumer electronics and networking channels GPIO GPIO 2.4/5 GHz 11ac Radio Front End WLAN RF CPU and Memory SOC, MAC and PHY Synthesizer PCIE Power Management PCIE 3.3 V REF CLK/ Crystal 802.11ac Device Block Diagram 21
EVM (db) Versus Average Output Power Chain -45-25 -5 15-18 -23-28 -33-38 -43-48 Traditional Instrumentation -45-25 -5 15-18 -23-28 -33-38 -43-48 NI PXI Vector Signal Transceiver 22
Qualcomm Results 802.11a + b + g + 802.11n + 802.11ac Early 2000s Traditional Rack and Stack 2007 NI PXI RF Instrumentation 10X Faster Than Traditional 2012 NI PXI Vector Signal Transceiver 200X Faster Than Traditional 23
The Expectations More Functionality Reduced Cost Smaller Footprint Accelerated Delivery 24
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Soft Front Panels for RF Analysis / Generation One Button Measurements Analysis Built-in measurements such as TOI, CCDF, ACPR, OBW, channel power, transmit power, and spectral mask Works with NI PXI RF vector signal analyzers (NI PXIe- 566x) Generation Quickly generate modulated and continuous wave RF signals Take advantage of built-in modulation schemes such as AM, FM, and PM Sweep amplitude and frequencies using RF list mode Works with NI PXI RF vector signal generators (NI 567x) 26
Demonstration Frequency Domain Trigger
Case Study Throughput Increased The PXI platform gave us the ability to significantly scale our production test throughput by 400 percent with an ROI of 185 percent while carefully maintaining the quality and performance standards that our military radios are known for. Joseph Nakoski, Harris 28
Software-Designed Instrumentation Frequency Domain Averaging Protocol Aware ATE Channel Emulation Frequency Triggering Power Level Servoing Noise Correction Software Defined Radio Vector Signal Analyzer Test Sequencing Vector Signal Generator DUT Control 29
The Expectations More Functionality Reduced Cost Smaller Footprint Accelerated Delivery but don t change anything 30
Software Defined Systems - Cognitive Systems Analog domain Digital domain RF/Microwave IF/Baseband Signal Processing Joseph R. Guerci - Microwave Journal Vol.54 No.1, Juanuary 2011 Workshop on Technologies towards Cognitive Transceivers Warsaw, 2012 slide 17 31
Software Defined Systems Modern Radar Jamming Systems (DRFM)...... Source: http://ftp.rta.nato.int/public//pubfulltext/rto/mp/rto-mp-set-080///mp-set-080-p07.pdf 32
NI PXI Express System Streaming 800 MB/s 800 MB/s 800 MB/s Streaming to/from Controller Memory Can sustain 7 unidirectional streams at 800 MB/s for a total of 5.6GB/s Streaming to/from Disk Can sustain 4 streams at 800 MB/s for 2.8GB/s/direction (5.6GB/s total system) Peer-to-Peer Streaming Can sustain 8 streams at 800 MB/s for 5.6GB/s/direction (11.2GB/s total system)
Software Designed Systems RF/Microwave IF/Baseband VSA Signal Conditioning VSG Signal Conditioning Down-Converter Up-Converter A/D D/A Data Bus Data Bus Signal Processing (GPP, GPU, FPGA) Data Bus Data Storage VST 34