Forums › General Discussions › Pulsed RF signal spectrum measurement
- This topic has 9 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 5 months ago by
Justin Crooks.
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bittwareParticipantHi,
I’d like to measure a 3GHz with 10MHz bandwidth pulsed RF signal.
The pulse lasts for just 5us. It keeps coming 3ms per pulse.
Could you let me know if Signal Hound spectrum analyzer could deal with this kind of signal?
Thanks.
BW
bittwareParticipantOr this may be called instantaneous frequency measurement?
Justin CrooksModeratorThe BB60C would be the only current option for this. It has 27 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth.
In zero span mode, video triggered, you could trigger on the rising edge of the pulse, and observe e.g. 1 microsecond before rising edge and 19 microseconds after, and make measurements on the instantaneous amplitude (including pulse width at 25 nanosecond resolution), frequency, and relative phase of the pulse.
bittwareParticipantIt’s great to know BB60C could get it done.
Could you elaborate on “measurements on the instantaneous amplitude (including pulse width at 25 nanosecond resolution), frequency, and relative phase of the pulse.”?
In fact, I’m going to tune my 3GHz signal generator to my RF Cavity in real-time.
I’m particularly interested in what API may be involved to interpret the amplitude, frequency and relative phase. These three factors are the key to drive my tuner. How fast is the API running at the remote? Within 3ms interval, can all these three parameters per pulse be recorded without missing in streaming mode?
Thanks again.
bittwareParticipantAnd what do you mean by “relative phase of the pulse”? Is it the phase varying with time within the pulse period or the fixed relative phase shift with respect to the reference signal?
My input is just pure 3GHz signal without any modulation.
Justin CrooksModeratorIf you are using the API, we provide streaming I/Q data at 40 MSPS, which you could have centered at 3 GHz.
For amplitude, use I*I+Q*Q, and for phase use the atan2 function.
By relative phase, I mean 2 things:
1) If your generator time base does not exactly match the BB60C, the phase angle in the I/Q data will rotate at the frequency difference.
2) If you lock time bases together, there will be a fixed phase offset between the generator and the BB60C. In most cases, there will be a *new* fixed phase offset each time you start I/Q streaming, but exact multiples of 20 MHz may avoid this.
You can download the API manual from our website for more information.
Using the API, you can measure amplitude and phase 40 million times per second. By adjusting sample rate and signal bandwidth, and adding some averaging, you can make more accurate, but slower, amplitude and phase measurements.
bittwareParticipantMy signal generator is a magnetron so there is no time base to lock with. Then can I use the same signal with some phase shift as the time base to BB60C?
The scheme is something like what is shown in the attached file.
bittwareParticipantThis file is too big. The link is
http://www.analog.com/en/analog-dialogue/articles/rf-to-bits-solution.html
bittwareParticipantIf the center frequency drift is of concern, which API function should be used to get the instantaneous frequency measurement value?
Justin CrooksModeratorIn that case, you can look at the phase of the I/Q samples (using atan2). Convert phase to frequency for the instantaneous frequency. You can reduce noise by low pass filtering the frequency results.
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