RF

The QCS-AX2 series from ON Semiconductor brings 6 GHz Wi-Fi 6E to routers and access points. Just as LTE cellular is running out of capacity (hence 5G), so is Wi-Fi. Originally operating at 2.4 GHz (70 MHz band), IEEE 802.3n added 5 GHz, which supplemented with 500 MHz but at a decreased range. That’s happening…

Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing has become the standard modulation format for 5G New Radio. Lean how OFDM works and how it’s used. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is an efficient modulation format used in modern wireless communication systems including 5G. OFDM combines the benefits of Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) and Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) to produce…

The Tektronix RSA7100B wideband RF signal analyzer and streaming recorder lets engineers working on wideband designs in communications, radar, and electronic warfare capture and analyze signal in the frequency domain. It provides more than 2.5 hours of streaming RF storage with 800-MHz real-time bandwidth. Its 16 kHz to 26.5 GHz frequency range covers a broad…

RF component manufacturer Pasternack has added some 54 models to its line of mmWave antennas for 5G and other applications. Additions include five new categories of high frequency waveguide antennas are now available to address point-to-point and point-to-multi-point wireless applications, including Probe Waveguide Antennas to 170 GHz with 6.5 dBi of gain Dual Polarized Waveguide…

In Digital modulation basics, part 1 we examined the concept of quadrature modulation and signal generation. We showed a common block diagram for generating a quadrature signal (Figure 1). There is a corresponding receiver block diagram to extract the Inphase (I) and Quadrature (Q) components of the signal (Figure 2). The signal is converted to…

5G Technology World talks with Teradyne’s Jeorge Hurtarte, who explains components and over-the-air production test of 5G components. 5G phones, base stations, IoT, and other devices have moved into production, but like everything else, 5G’s mmWave frequencies bring new challenges there, just as they have with design and deployment. For starters, production facilities don’t what…

The Model 865 from Berkeley Nucleonics lets you generate signals in the sub-6 GHz FR1 band and the mmWave FR2 band for testing 5G and other RF devices and systems such as Radar. 5G starts with RF/microwave/mmWave carriers and engineers need to test devices and systems with clean signals. For example, you might want to…

Spectrum analyzer maker ThinkRF and Cellular software publisher CelPlan have joined forces to integrate their products, letting engineers monitor the newly opened 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band. The product integration lets RF engineers conduct drive tests and evaluate network performance, map coverage, or identify issues in the 3.5 GHz CBRS band. CBRS…

Mobile devices have evolved from basic analog phones to digitally enabled smartphones that fit in the palm of your hand. Voice communications are still part of the mix, but voice calls are handled by converting the voice signal from analog to digital and transmitting it digitally. This means that mobile wireless systems are focused on…

5G took some fifteen years to develop, starting around 2004 at university research labs. When 3GPP Release 15, the first 5G new radio (5GNR) standard, was approved in late 2017, the race to deploy began. That includes mmWave Frequencies starting around 24 GHz. At roughly the same time, research labs began looking at frequencies above…