From Benchtops to Pockets: The Age of the Ever-Shrinking Test Gear (.PDF Download)

Microwave test equipment is gaining in power even as instruments are shrinking in size. Portable spectrum analyzers and oscilloscopes, for example, were once typified by carrying handles and lightweight battery packs; now they include a Universal Serial Bus (USB) for connection to a PC. In combination with available software, modern RF/microwave instruments are making it possible to pack a laboratory worth of measurement capability in a suitcase, and bring high-frequency measurements into the field without losing too much of the power of larger benchtop or rack-mount instruments.

The proliferation of USB RF/microwave test instruments over the last few years has been phenomenal, to the point that almost any measurement function can be contained within a pocket-sized package. Although they still require additional software and computing capability, like a laptop PC, such measuring instruments are every bit equal to the tasks of generating and analyzing signals through the RF and lower-microwave frequency ranges.

However, such equipment still lacks in performance compared to full-sized rack-mount and benchtop full-sized test instruments at higher microwave and millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequencies—but they are gaining. Although coaxial connectors are available through mmWave frequencies, just interconnections based on waveguide (when required) can be larger than one of today’s USB RF/microwave test instruments.