RF Measurement Fundamentals

Overview
RF and wireless communication is becoming the standard in everyday device design. Understanding RF and its
fundamentals is critical to being successful when designing and testing RF devices. This course covers a range of topics
from overall RF device architecture, mathematics basics like Fourier Transforms, modulation, RF measurements, and
RF test considerations. This course is appropriate for beginning students or more advanced engineers wanting a
refresher course in RF. It prepares the student for the RF Application Development course.

Duration
Two (2) Days
Registration
Audience Register online at ni.com/training or
• New and practicing test/product engineers who are call (800)433-3488 Fax: (512)683-9300
involved with the production, test, and development [email protected]
of RF/Wireless solutions in the DC to 6 GHz
frequency range Outside North America, contact your local NI Office.
• Engineers who want to expand their existing RF Worldwide Contact Info: ni.com/global
knowledge to cover both traditional and current RF
technologies Part Number
910804-xx
Prerequisites -01 NI Corporate or Branch
• Basic understanding of LabVIEW and the -11Regional
environment; LabVIEW programming experience is -21 Onsite (at your facility)
not essential for this course, but helpful -69 Online
• Basic understanding of analysis methods
(FFT, DFT, decibel, etc.)
• RF Primer On-Demand Course • Read specifications of common RF instrumentation
and RF devices
NI Products Used During the Course • Understand modulation and modulation
• LabVIEW Professional Development System measurements like BER, EVM, and MER
Version 2009 or later • Break down super-heterodyne and Zero IF block
• PXIe-5663E Vector Signal Analyzer diagrams into their constituent parts (amplifiers,
• PXIe-5673E Vector Signal Generator modulators, mixers, phase locked loops, filters,
• Modulation Toolkit Digital-to-Analog Converters, Analog-to-Digital
• Spectral Measurements Toolkit Converters
• FM radio, WCDMA Power Amplifier, FM and UHF
antennas Suggested Next Courses
• LabVIEW Core 1 & 2
After attending this course, you will be able to: • LabVIEW Core 3
• Understand important RF terminology and what it • RF Application Development
means • LabVIEW Connectivity
• Understand traditional measurements like gain, • Advanced Architectures in LabVIEW
power compression, third-order intercept,
harmonics, Adjacent Channel Power Ratio, phase
noise, noise figure, and more

ni.com/training
RF Measurement Fundamentals Outline
Day 1 Day 2
RF SOC Device Architectures RF Parametric Measurement Overview for Discrete
This lesson introduces you to common RF devices and Devices
their architectures. It also reviews orders of magnitude This lesson introduces you to important concepts in RF.
common to RF. Topics include: It describes RF power and methods for measuring
• Basic Radio Components power. It covers noise in RF signals and measurement
• RF SOC Device Architectures systems. The lesson also goes into details of important
• Superheterodyne Transceivers RF specifications for devices and instrumentation.
• Homodyne Zero IF (ZIF) Transceivers Topics include:
• Device Integration Paths • RF Power
• What is a spectrum analyzer?
Fourier Transforms and FFTs • Noise
This lesson reviews frequency and time domain signals. • Transmission Line Theory
It describes how the Fourier transform works and • Scattering Matrix (S-parameters)
covers areas like Nyquist Sampling Theory, Signal to • Gain
Noise Ratio and Complex FFT. Topics include: • Major RF Measurements
• Frequency versus Time Domain • Mixers
• Fourier Transform • Intermodulation Distortion
• Relationship of Time and Frequency • Adjacent Channel Power Ratio (ACPR)
• Nyquist Sampling • Phase Noise
• Coherent Sampling and Windowing • M. Dynamic Range (DR) vs. Spurious Free
• Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) Dynamic Range
• IQ Modulation/Complex FFT

Complex and Digital Modulation Bit Error Rate (BER)

This lesson introduces you to modulation and IQ data This lesson explains Bit Error Rate and why it is
(complex data). It describes the different methods of important for device testing. Topics include:
digital modulation using phase and magnitude • Receiver Tests Overview
variations. It also introduces you to modulation • Bit Error Rate (BER) Testing
measurements like Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) and • BER Receiver Measurements
Modulation Error Ratio (MER). Finally it describes IQ • Packet Error Rate (PER)
imbalances (impairments). Topics include:
• Modern Digital Communication System
• Modulation Basics
• Modulation Techniques
• EVM and MER
• Imbalance Effects

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