Agilent Improving Throughputwith Fast RF Signal Generator SwitchingIntroductionToday’s manufacturers of wireless components, devices, and systems face significant pressure to increase throughput and lower the cost of test
Improving the speed of automated test equipment (ATE) can be an important factor in reducing overall test times
This note describes techniques for optimizing RFsignal generators within ATEs to reduce test times and improve throughput
Although these concepts can be applied to any signal generator, the examples shown in this note apply to the Agilent N5181A MXG analog and N5182A MXG vector signal generators (250 kHz to 6 GHz)
When equipped with the fast switching capability (Option UNZ), these signal generators can switch frequency, amplitude, or waveform in less than 1