1 ni.com

ni.com

Jacques Cilliers

Application Engineer

Instrumentation Redefined

A Introduction to NI Vector Signal Transceivers

3 ni.com

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 ni.com

CDMA

GSM EDGE

802.11a/b/g 802.11n 802.11ac

802.11ad

GPS

GLONASS

LTE

LTE-A

ZigBee

Bluetooth

WiMAX

NFC

RFID

Increasing Complexity

5 ni.com

Escalating Complexity Over Time

6 ni.com

1996

Increasing Standards Coverage 2011

2010

2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 2013

2012

802.11a/b

802.11g 802.11n 802.11ac

GSM (2G)

EDGE EDGE+

WCDMA (3G)

HSPA HSPA+

LTE (4ish G)

LTE Advanced

WiMAX Mobile WiMAX Wave-2

Bluetooth

Bluetooth EDR BT HS Low- Energy

Wireless Connectivity

Cellular and WiMAX

HSPA+ Adv

7 ni.com

The Expectations

More Functionality

Smaller Footprint

Reduced Cost

Accelerated Delivery

ni.com

Date of Introduction

Tra

nsis

tor

Count

1971 1980 1990 2000 2012

2,300

10,000

100,000

1,000,000

10,000,000

100,000,000

1,000,000,000

2,600,000,000

2012

Intel Xeon – 2.6 B transistors

1976

8086 processor – 6,500 transistors

Moore’s Law

9 ni.com

2013 1970s

Moore’s Law Is

10 ni.com

2013 1970s

Moore’s Law Is Not

11 ni.com

2013 1970s

Moore’s Law for Instrumentation

12 ni.com

A New Solution Must:

Improve on RF specifications

Be smaller, faster AND lower cost

Integrate multiple functions/instruments

Rapidly support evolving wireless standards

Meet ALL of the customer’s needs

(As DEFINED by the CUSTOMER!!!)

How do we use Moore’s law?

13 ni.com

Introducing the NI PXIe-5644R The World’s First Vector Signal Transceiver

14 ni.com

Fraction of the Size of Traditional Solutions The World’s First Vector Signal Transceiver

15 ni.com

Early 2000s—Traditional

Rack and Stack

2007—NI PXI RF

Instrumentation

10X Faster Than

Traditional

200X Faster Than

Traditional

2012—NI PXI Vector

Signal Transceiver

16 ni.com

A New Solution Must

Improve on RF specifications

Be smaller, faster AND lower cost

Integrate multiple functions/instruments

Rapidly support evolving wireless standards

Meet ALL of the customer’s needs

(As DEFINED by the CUSTOMER!!!)

How do we use Moore’s law?

✔

✔

✔

✔

17 ni.com

18 ni.com

LabVIEW Reconfigurable I/O (RIO) Architecture

Processor FPGA

Processor FPGA Analog I/O

Digital I/O

Motion I/O

Custom I/O

19 ni.com

Benefits of FPGAs

• Processing Power

• Integration with Existing IP

• High Determinism

• True Parallelism

• Reconfigurable

Programmable Interconnects

Logic Blocks

20 ni.com

Software-Designed Instrumentation Completely Open-Source Driver Ensures Ultimate Flexibility

The vector signal transceiver is ready to run out of the box, but the driver is written entirely in LabVIEW, giving you direct access to the instruments I/O.

21 ni.com

Software-Designed Instrumentation Completely Open-Source Driver Ensures Ultimate Flexibility

The vector signal transceiver is ready to run out of the box, but the driver is written entirely in LabVIEW, giving you direct access to the instrument’s I/O.

22 ni.com

Software-Designed Instrumentation

DUT Control

Channel Emulation

Frequency Triggering

Vector Signal Generator

Vector Signal Analyzer

Power Level Servoing

Test Sequencing

Noise Correction

Software Defined Radio

Frequency Domain Averaging

Protocol Aware ATE

23 ni.com

PXIe-5644R & 5645R 6 GHz Vector Signal Transceiver

RF (PXIe-5644R/5645R)

Configuration VSA and VSG w/ independent LOs 24 DIO lines @ 250 Mbps

Frequency Range 65 MHz to 6 GHz

Bandwidth 80 MHz

Features • Programmable FPGA w/ LabVIEW • Fast Tuning Mode: <400 μs

Baseband (PXIe-5645R only)

Configuration Differential Baseband I/Q Input & Output

Input/Output 16-bits @ 120 MS/s

24 ni.com

A Closer Look at the PXIe-5644R

RF Input 65 MHz – 6 GHz 80 MHz BW

RF Output 65 MHz – 6 GHz 80 MHz BW

Reference In/Out

Digital I/O 24 channels Up to 250 Mbps Additional triggering

LOs In/Out Independent In & Out MIMO Support

Calibration In/Out Always keep the calibration cable connected

Trigger

25 ni.com

A Closer Look at the PXIe-5645R

26 ni.com

Soft Front Panels for RF Analysis/Generation

• Built-in one-button measurements for high- performance RF characterization and debugging

• View/analyze/generate/save RF CW and modulated signals

• 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)

27 ni.com

Demo

28 ni.com

Signal Processing in LabVIEW

Modulation & Demodulation

Signal Creation

Filtering (FIR, IIR, etc.)

Signal Operation

Spectrogram

29 ni.com

NI Platform for Software-Defined RF Test

WCDMA & HSPA+

WiMAX

WLAN ZigBee GPS

LTE GSM/EDGE

RFID

FM/RDS Bluetooth CDMA2000 & EVDO

TD-SCDMA

30 ni.com

GSM/EDGE Measurement Suite

• Standard Support • GSM, EDGE

• UE and BS testing

• Software support • API for LabVIEW and C/C++

• Interactive soft front panels

• Teststand example sequences

• Measurement performance • Modulation ORFS (GSM): -68 dBc

• RMS EVM (EDGE): < 0.5%

31 ni.com

WCDMA/HSPA+ Measurement Suite

• Standard Support

• WCDMA, HSPA, and HSPA+

• UE and BS testing

• Software support

• API for LabVIEW and C/C++

• Interactive soft front panels

• Teststand example sequences

• Measurement performance

• ACLR (Uplink): -63 dBc

• RMS EVM (Uplink): < 0.5%

32 ni.com

WiMAX Measurement Suites

• Standard Support • Fixed WiMAX (802.16d)

• Mobile WiMAX (802.16e-2005)

• Software support • API for LabVIEW and C/C++

• Interactive soft front panels

• Measurement performance • RMS EVM (EDGE): > -45 dB

• 3x to 5x Faster than Traditional Instruments

33 ni.com

WLAN Measurement Suite

• Standard Support • IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n

• MCS 0-31 for 802.11n

• Software support • API for LabVIEW and C/C++

• Interactive soft front panels

• Measurement performance • RMS EVM (EDGE): -45 dB

• 3x to 10x Faster than Traditional Instruments

34 ni.com

GPS Simulation Toolkit

• Standard Support

• GPS C/Code Generation (L1)

• Support for WAAS generation

• Waypoint and trajectory mode

• Software support

• API for LabVIEW and C/C++

• Interactive example programs

• Measurement capabilities

• Sensitivity

• Time to first fix (TTFF)

35 ni.com

Summary

• Industry Leading Measurement Speed

• Flexible HW and SW • Multi-standard support

• Digital to RF generation/analysis

• Design Validation to Manufacturing test • R&D Grade Comparable accuracy to mid-grade

traditional instruments

• Better measurements at lower cost.