As wireless telecommunication features continue to expand into virtually every control and sense technology, a wide array of new wireless transmitters and components will need to be designed and analyzed. There are many measurement methods and figures of merit that can be brought to bear in analyzing transmitter performance. Two such methods, occupied bandwidth (OBW) and channel power measurements, are relatively easy measurements to make that can reveal distortion, poor power amplifier (PA) design, filter effects, system noise, and other signal degradation factors.
With the advent of real-time spectrum analyzers (RTSAs), pulsed, frequency-hopping, and other transient/intermittent signals can now be characterized using OBW and channel power measurements. Signal Hound’s Spike software and one of the Signal Hound RTSAs, such as a BB60C, can be used to analyze highly modulated signals and transient signals using built-in occupied bandwidth and channel power measurement features.
This document walks through an example setup and testing procedure for both occupied bandwidth and channel power measurements. The goal of the walkthrough is to demonstrate and explain the critical aspects of occupied bandwidth and channel power measurements and how Signal Hound tools can be used to reliably produce low-cost and low-learning-curve measurements rapidly and with little setup.
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