System Overview
Sampling at 125 MS/s with a selectable IBW up to 100MHz, the R5500 RTSA performs with excellent dynamic range, phase noise performance and speed.
The CMC system is comprised of the R5500 RTSA, test antennas and a laptop containing the thinkRF application & integration software in a portable hard-shell carrying case.
Keysight’s 89601C PathWave Vector Signal Analysis (89600 VSA) Software is installed on the laptop. This powerful combination with the R5500 enables high-speed vector signal analysis in the full breadth of the 89600 VSA software capabilities. The license is on a USB dongle (no internet required).
For those who need to program custom applications, thinkRF’s APIs are provided for interfacing and performing data acquisition and spectral analysis with Python™, C/C++, MATLAB® and LabVIEW®. Applications can also be built within the PyRF development framework which is built on the Python programming language and is open-source under BSD licensing. The small form factor and Ethernet connectivity allow it to be installed in tight experimental setups and monitored remotely.
The R5500 provides real-time sophisticated triggering and capture control. It is designed for stand-alone, remotely-accessed continuous wireless signal analysis and can be set to record upon trigger by a defined event. It is ideal for monitoring and characterizing transmitters and the associated channels, whether they are in-building or spread across a geographic area.
Specifications
The R5500 hardware design includes:
- A hybrid super-heterodyne, direct-conversion and direct-digitization RF receiver front-end (RFE);
- Receiver front end inputs and outputs to support clock synchronization, and IF outputs for high-end digitization;
- A 125 MSample/sec 14-bit wideband (WB) ADC with a dynamic range of greater than 70 dB;
- A 300 kSample/sec 24-bit narrowband (NB) ADC with a dynamic range in excess of 100dB;
- A Xilinx’s Zynq FPGA with built-in dual-core ARM®-based processor, Gigabit Ethernet interface and custom embedded digital signal processing (DSP) logic;
- 1 GB of DDR3 shared between firmware and real-time caching of digitized data;
- A general purpose input/output (GPIO) port.
Resources
Applications
- 5G Wireless Technology
- Research
- Channel Characterization
- Test and Measurement
- Monitoring
- Transmitter Characterization
What’s Included
- The thinkRF R5500-427 27 GHz (RTSA)
- Two test antennas
- Lenovo ThinkPad laptop with mouse & LAN adapter
- LAN crossover cable to connect the R5500 to the laptop
- Keysight PathWave 89600 VSA software with digital modulation analysis applications
- USB dongle license
- USB drive with manuals (also on the laptop).