Tektronix, Inc. has announced an extension to the TDSUWB oscilloscope software utility. As a result, the new Tek UWB WiMedia2 software extends the UWB debug and analysis capabilities of the Tektronix DSA70000, DPO70000 and TDS6000C Series to include real-time analysis of ultra wideband (UWB) RF signals. UWB wireless technology promises a data transfer rate beyond 1Gbps to meet the demand of data-intensive emerging applications. With the Tektronix UWB WiMedia2 application, engineers will be able to design, debug, and validate the performance of WiMedia UWB radios used in certified wireless USB, WiNet and high-speed Bluetooth consumer electronics.

UWB is a wireless radio technology that uses pulses or waveforms compressed in time, allowing frequency energy to be spread over a very wide bandwidth to very low levels, enabling UWB radios to share spectrum with existing narrowband transmissions without causing undue interference. Extensions within Tek UWB WiMedia2 for the WiMedia Alliances’ UWB Common Radio Platform offer single-button tests for efficient debugging and RF compliance testing of WiMedia UWB systems, including demodulation of the RF waveform and RF signal quality measurements, including constellation patterns, EVM., power spectral density, ACPR measurements and spectrograms. The information-rich display of modulation and time-domain frequency waveforms offers new insight into UWB radios.

Tek UWB WiMedia2 automatically identifies Time Frequency Code (TFC) — frequency of operation and hopping sequence, and it automatically identifies the data rate from the RF waveform for ease of use. The results of all combinations of TFCs, data rates and band groups are tabulated in standard csv format providing fast and easy documentation of all RF measurements.

The Tek UWB WiMedia2 is currently pre-release software and is available for download from www.tektronix.com for a limited time without charge.