Today we're going to do a side-by-side comparison between the E5071C and the
E5080B. Let's meet our contestants. Weighing in at about 20 kilograms the
E5071C was introduced in 2006 and has remained one of the most popular network
analyzers in the industry. With frequency coverage up to 20 gigahertz and useful
measurement applications like enhanced TDR this has been the go-to for general
purpose network analysis, until now. Introducing the E5080B. At 15
kilograms, does this newcomer have what it takes to beat the champion? Let's put
them to the test. Here I have a bandpass filter with a pass band around 10
gigahertz. Let's see how these two instruments measure up. Let's start with
the E5071C. I'll use the buttons in the stimulus area to set up my sweep.
I'll do a start frequency of 8 gigahertz, a stop frequency of 12.5 gigahertz,
and I'll change the IF bandwidth to 1k Hertz. Now it's time to
calibrate using an eCal. When I connect the filter, the default s11 measurement
shows up. I also want to see s21, so let's add another trace. So I'll go to display,
number of traces, and then add a second one. Now we have to allocate this trace
to a different window, so I'll go here and then create two windows. Next I'll
select the new trace and assign the s21 measurement. I want to see the noise
floor so I'm going to adjust the scale of this measurement to have a reference
level of minus 65 DB. If we enlarge this trace we can see the noise floor is at
about minus 85 DB here. So that's a simple s-parameter measurement with the
E5071C. Now for the E5080B. I'm gonna go into Quick Start to set up my
measurement. We'll start with s11. Here I can input the start and stop frequencies,
the sweep time, and an IF bandwidth of 1k Hertz.
Now it's time to calibrate.
We're calibrated and ready to measure when I
connect the filter the default s11 measurement is displayed. Adding another
trace is as easy as hitting this new trace button at the top of the screen. Let's
change this new trace to s21. Now, to move this trace to its own window all I have
to do is hold and drag it to any side. This is actually really fun and you can
just keep dropping these wherever you want. Now we can see the noise floor is
at about minus 95 DB. This is much better than the E5071C's noise floor at
minus 85 DB when we did this same test, thanks to the upgraded hardware in the
E5080B. Let's adjust the IF bandwidth from 1k Hertz to 100k Hertz. So now we're
measuring a hundred times faster. Our new noise floor is at about minus 80 DB. This
is close to where we've worked with the E5071C with an IF bandwidth a
hundred times smaller than what we're using now. Let's see what happens if we
change the E5071C IF bandwidth to 100 K Hertz.
Not nearly as accurate. This measurement has a much higher noise floor. So after
doing the same measurement on both instruments the E5080B emerges as the
winner of this head-to-head matchup. With its superior measurement performance and
updated UI this is the best-in-class ENA Network analyzer. This is just one
example of what the E5080B can do. In addition this instrument can perform
operations like spectrum analysis, pulsed RF measurements, and noise figure. To
learn more about the new E5080B, visit keysight.com/find/E5080B
Thanks for watching.