National Instruments (www.ni.com), which has been extending its reach into the microwave frequency range in recent years, this summer announced the firm's model NI PXIe-5673 vector signal generator and the model NI PXIe-5663 vector signal analyzer, both with top frequencies of 6.6 GHz. The NI PXIe-5673 vector signal generator runs from 85 MHz to 6.6 GHz with better than 100-MHz instantaneous bandwidth and as much as +10 dBm output power. It features typical -66 dBc adjacent-channel leakage ratio and -64 dBc typical image and carrier suppression at 2.4 GHz. The NI PXIe-5663 vector signal analyzer operates from 10 MHz to 6.6 GHz with 3-dB bandwidth of 50 MHz. It maintains flatness of ±0.35 dB within a 20-MHz bandwidth and ±0.65 dB amplitude accuracy. The analyzer features a typical spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of 80 dB and typical noise floor of -158 dBc/Hz at 1 GHz.

The instrument pair are complemented by the firm's NI PXIe-1075 18-slot high-bandwidth chassis, which features PCI Express lanes routed to every slot providing up to 1 GB/s per-slot bandwidth and up to 4 GB/s total system bandwidth. The chassis accommodates either PXI Express or PXI hybrid-slot-compatible modules. As Joseph Kovacs, National's Senior RF and Communications Manager, explains: "Now engineers can experience the performance benefits of true software-defined RF instrumentation based on LabVIEW and the PXI platform. Our customers will benefit from speed improvements of 10 times compared to traditional instruments today as well as improvements that will occur as processors with more cores come to market." For a full-length review of the 6.6-GHz vector signal generator and vector signal analyzer, don't miss the upcoming October 2008 issue of Microwaves & RF.

National Instruments (www.ni.com)

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