Aeroflex Announces 40GHz Microwave Down-Converter Highest Bandwidth and Lowest Phase Noise on the Market
14 June 2005
A new 40GHz microwave down converter launched today (14 June 2005) by Aeroflex touts the industry’s best noise performance. Until now, there have been no commercial microwave down-converters that provide the unparalleled combination of high bandwidth with low noise performance suited for radar, commercial wireless, satellite terrestrial microwave links and calibration labs. The Aeroflex PN9276 is a 1GHz to 40GHz down-converter that plugs into any Aeroflex PN9000 Phase Noise Analyzer or PN9500 Wideband Jitter and Phase Noise Analyzer.
Because of its IF (intermediate frequency) range, the PN9276 allows phase noise measurements up to 200MHz offset, making the PN9500 phase noise tester with a PN9276 down converter the highest performance phase noise test system in the industry. This combination allows system sensitivity testing not possible before. The “Smart Converter” scheme employed by Aeroflex in the down-converter’s architecture offers a noise floor performance as low as –168dBc/Hz up to 2GHz. Performance at 9GHz is –95dBc/Hz at 100Hz offset, -131dBc/Hz at 10kHz offset, and –159dBc/Hz at 10MHz offset.
Outstanding Performance Close-In and Far Away from the Carrier
The PN9276 includes a microwave mixer and a low noise, YIG-based, 100MHz step synthesizer. This synthesizer generates a 4GHz to 9GHz signal from a 100MHz crystal oscillator phase-locked to a 10MHz crystal oscillator. This provides a low noise reference close in and far away from the carrier without loss of spectral purity. Phase noise performance for the PN9276 come in three modes—wide, narrow and standard—corresponding to three locking bandwidths for the output microwave YIG oscillator. Wide mode is optimized for the lowest close-in noise, up to 100kHz from the carrier. Narrow mode is optimized for the lowest noise far away from the carrier. Standard mode allows the best compromise between the two modes.
Availability
The PN9276 is immediately available and units are already shipping. The unit has three available options: the PN9276-00, 1GHz to 18GHz; the PN9276-01, 1GHz to 26.5GHz; and the PN9276-02, 1 to 40GHz. The PN9276 unit plugs into any Aeroflex PN9000 automatic phase noise test system or PN9500 wideband jitter and noise analyzer test system.
