At the 2006 Electronica exhibition, TTi (Thurlby Thandar Instruments) is showing a number of innovative test and measurement products for the first time at a major European exhibition
A major new product is the PSA1301T: a handheld RF spectrum analyser which, at a cost of only euro1195, sets a new low price point for such products.
As well as being lower in cost, the PSA1301T is considerably smaller and lighter than other RF spectrum analysers currently available.
Despite this, it offers a high-resolution (480 ( 320 pixel) backlit colour TFT display.
It achieves its combination of low cost and high performance by incorporating a handheld computer within the analyser.
This provides the display, control, calculation, mass storage and external interface capabilities of the product.
The PSA1301T has a frequency range of 150kHz to 1.3GHz with selectable resolution bandwidth down to 15kHz.
The PSA1301T will offer RF service engineers a cost-effective and highly portable tool.
It will now make it practical for an engineer to carry a spectrum analyser to areas that have traditionally been difficult to access with benchtop instruments and not cost-effective when using existing portable products offered by other manufacturers.
Any number of waveforms and settings can be stored to permanent memory using an SD or MMC flash memory card.
Data can be saved under default or user-entered file names as preferred.
Bitmap images of the whole screen can also be stored for viewing or printing.
This will reduce the need for a return visit.
Also featured by TTi are two new arbitrary waveform generators which combine 1M words of memory per channel with a variable clock architecture producing speeds of up to 100MHz.
The TGA12104 has four channels and the TGA12102 has two.
The variable clock architecture differs fundamentally from the direct digital synthesis (DDS) based system used in most lower-cost arbitrary generators.
It allows separate waveform segments to be linked together in a repetitive sequence to produce waveform lengths far in excess of the waveform memory length of 1,048,576 words.
The variable clock system also eliminates the waveform jitter associated with the DDS generation technique for arbitrary waveforms.
Arbitrary waveform storage is effectively unlimited using CompactFlash memory cards of up to 1Gbyte capacity.
Waveforms can be transferred to and from a PC using the digital interfaces of GPIB, RS232 and USB (all fitted as standard), or using the USB-based CF card reader supplied with the generators.
Both units incorporate an external ARB clock input which allows the arbitrary waveform to be clocked at any frequency in synchronism with an external signal.
This enables user to sweep the frequency of all channels while maintaining phase control: a feature that is vital for any variable frequency test requirements.
This is not possible with DDS based ARBs.
The generators are capable of producing up to four waveforms which can be either fully independent or linked using simple or complex relationships including full inter-channel triggering, modulation, summing and phase control.
Both generators are supplied with Waveform Manager Plus arbitrary waveform creation software.
This is a powerful Windows-based design tool that enables the user to create waveforms from mathematical expressions, from combinations of other waveforms, freehand drawing, or using a combination of all three techniques.
