do you need the functionality of a
benchtop PNA but in a smaller form
factor that's easier to move between
labs learn all about the new keysight
streamline series of enas and how they
can help accelerate your design process
[Music]
these new VNA's our USB compact
instruments which are great for
transporting between labs and test
floors there are all two-port models and
range from four point five to twenty six
point five gigahertz in this video you
will learn about how to get the new VNA
set up and calibrated and how to do some
basic testing with it to ensure you're
making accurate measurements the
materials we'll be using in this video
aside from the instrument itself are an
e cal module a male-to-male SMA cable a
bandpass filter as our DUT and a 3.5
millimeter torque wrench so first things
first before we actually dive into how
to use this new type of instrument we
have to get the software downloaded and
ready to use on our PC so that we can
actually control this box the first
thing you have to do is download the
keysight io libraries at the link on the
screen this is what will allow you to
connect two instruments to your PC and
manage those connections you need this
for almost all of keysight software so
you may already have it installed on
your computer if you use software like
benchvue
but be sure to check that you have the
latest version in order for it to work
with these new USB VNA's the firmware is
what will actually allow you to control
the instrument on your PC you can find
this link in the description below as
well or you can find it under the
support section of the webpage
once the firmware is installed it will
prompt you to restart your computer
after the restart you'll see an icon for
the software on your desktop before you
open the software plug in the USB cable
of the instrument into your PC once you
do this open the new VNA software by
double clicking the desktop icon your
device will show up in that window
select it and click run notice that this
soft front panel has the same user
interface as the keysight benchtop PNA
and ena as well as the modular pxi VNA
this makes it really easy to move
between different form factors in your
various design phases to get setup I'm
going to connect the SM
Kable to test port 2 and the DUT I'll
also connect the ikaw module to the host
PC using a USB cable next we need to set
up and calibrate the instrument which is
actually easier than it sounds the
calibration and quick setup tools can
help you quickly get your test parameter
set up and ready to go the quick setup
function guides you through the entire
setup process with a variety of
templates for fundamental measurements
always start out with the preset button
to reset any settings the previous user
may have left will go into the setup
menu and select quick start to show the
setup dialog since we are only working
with one port here I'll select the 1
port s-parameter option this is where
you will need to enter your start and
stop frequencies sweep type power level
and the other parameters for your test
it's important to remember here that
this new USB VNA source power must be
set correctly in order to avoid damage
or compression inside the ikaw module
the power for this should be set to
minus 15 DBM for the calibration
operation now that we're done with that
quick setup let's get calibrating the
ikaw module is used for this calibration
to remove system errors like the effect
of test cables wait until the LED of the
ikaw module turns green indicating that
it has warmed up enough in order to
correctly calibrate once the module is
connected start the calibration by going
to the cowl menu selecting other cows
and ikaw we're going to do two-port ikaw
and leave the default settings select
measure once the calibration is complete
you will see a message like this pop up
on screen showing that the calibration
has been saved to the channel now let's
connect the DUT to port 1 and the test
cable coming from port 2 and ensure we
can see the signal on screen we can see
the measured s11 parameter in magnitude
on the screen as the default parameter
just as we set in the quick setup let's
take a look at the s21 parameter which
is the transmission between port 1 and 2
we'll do basic data analysis of our DUT
which is a bandpass filter add a new
trace by clicking the add trace icon
from the top toolbar the s11 trace will
probably pop up on the screen as a blue
trace we
want to change the parameter of this
trace to s21 instead select measure and
s21 move trace to on the screen in order
to show the two traces side-by-side by
dragging trace to on top and now you can
see s21 on the right side of the window
with s11 on the left so you can really
easily set up the layout of how you want
to view each trace
let's rescale this s21 signal to see
more detail by dragging the reference
marker on the y-axis up to show the
entire response on screen using a marker
on this trace I can measure the maximum
power of the trace using the marker and
Max search functions I find the max
value is about minus 1 point 6 DB which
means we have about minus 1 point 6 DB
insertion loss we can also easily
analyze the bandwidth of this bandpass
filter we're testing by pressing select
and bandwidth and knotch
just press bandwidth search to analyze
the bandwidth you can also view these
traces in different formats let's say
I'd like to see the Smith chart for this
s11 trace so that I can characterize the
matching of this bandpass filter we're
testing so I'll select format and Smith
you can see all the different formats
available the standard log mag a phase
chart polar delay and so on these
different views help to characterize the
different aspects of your device
lastly let's learn about how to speed up
measurements and improve their accuracy
first I'll double click on the s21
window to maximize that on screen in
order to speed up the measurements we
need to make the intermediate frequency
bandwidth or if' bandwidth wider the
wider the if' band width is set the
faster the measurements can be performed
so let's set the if' bandwidth to 300k
Hertz by going to average bandwidth if'
bandwidth and enter that frequency
however the trade-off is the higher the
if' bandwidth is set the more random
noise will be introduced to the
measurement you can see that increased
noise here in the rejection bands below
350 megahertz or above 2 gigahertz to
improve this signal-to-noise ratio to
make more accurate measurements we can
increase the instrument source power
I'll select power and power level and
enter 7 DBM you can instantly see that
tres noise and the rejection bands has
improved while maintaining that high
measurement speed with 300k Hertz AF
bandwidth these are just a few helpful
tricks to help get you up to speed with
the new keysight streamline series USB
VNA instruments now you'll be ready to
go with the quick set up an easy
calibration process and now you
understand how to make more accurate
measurements with the instrument right
off the bat to learn more information
about the keysight streamline series
head over to the links you see here or
in the description
you