Back in 2009, Keysight Technologies (then known as the electronic instruments business of Agilent Technologies) decided that modular instruments were a key strategic-growth initiative for the company, which led to the introduction of its first PXI instruments. In concert with the creation of its modular operation, the company decided that the market could use a modular PXI Vector Network Analyzer (VNA). So R&D and marketing teams in Keysight’s Component Test Division (CTD) met to define a differentiating product. This was the start of a cross-divisional /cross-functional team that would included manufacturing, R&D, marketing, and the high-frequency technology center.
Representatives of Keysight’s PXI VNA team (from left to right): Luciana Taylor (Americas Market Segment Manager), Mike Mikulka (Hardware R&D Manager, Performance Network Analyzers), Raymond Taylor (Software Engineer, Performance Network Analyzers), Greg Hill (Hardware Engineer, Performance Network Analyzers), Dan Thomasson (Senior Director, High Frequency Technology Center), John Swanstrom (Product Manager, Performance Network Analyzers), Jay Alexander (Chief Technology Officer), and Henri Komrij (General Manager, Performance Network Analyzers).
In 2012, the team found it had a technology, first manifested in the microwave FieldFox handheld analyzer product line, which could be leveraged into the PXI VNA. Additionally, at that time, several large defense programs were looking for modular instrumentation to replace legacy test systems for automatic test equipment (ATE). So the team had the basic keys for success: a differentiating technology and a strong market need.
During the R&D stage, engineering chose to move to a single-slot module, which would provide product differentiation in the market place and better fit the market need for multiport capabilities. (Keysight’s PXI VNA is the only full two-port VNA that fits in just one slot.) This challenged the design team to optimize power, frequency coverage, and isolation all within a 20-mm wide slot. At the same time, the team decided to increase frequency coverage to 26.5 GHz to better meet the needs of defense ATE, so the target ranges became 300 kHz to 4, 6.5, 9, 14, 20, and 26.5 GHz.
To realize the PXI module, complete functional blocks had to be developed in Indium Phosphide (InP) on an IC, as did methods for achieving suitable isolation on a densely populated board, powerful technology that took up a very small amount of space on the board. Although a large portion of the RF board space is dedicated to shield tracks — where the machined shields make electrical contact to the printed-circuit assembly and rows of board vias isolate various circuit functions from one another — the RF board part density is still > 45 components per in.2 per side.
Further, software was needed to rapidly update field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and operating/application software, so as to achieve fast measurement speed as well as an extremely powerful user interface, one that was very easy to use and able to make complex measurements with ease. The project called for innovation in architecture — not only hardware and software, but calibration too — to let modules work together to provide capability of up to 32 ports.
Meeting with early potential customers, the team worked to increase the measurement speed by an order of magnitude for high-volume component manufacturing. They also moved to a customer-replaceable connector that could easily be changed out on site; this would help increase uptime and reduce time/costs. Further, making frequency ranges easily upgradeable was added in the R&D process per a customer request to protect their investment.
Meanwhile, the manufacturing engineers developed a production capability for fully testing the PXI VNA with just the PNA-X network analyzer, rather than using a collection of instruments and multiple test stands. With the single-connection/multiple-measurement capability of the PNA-X, this significantly reduced the test time. Using a high-performance PNA-X on the PXI VNA manufacturing line ensured quality and helped drive the cost of test down by using a single instrument instead of racks and stacks of equipment.
In Keysight’s word, market acceptance has been “solid”; customers were amazed with the single-slot size, performance, frequency range, and ease of use/user interface, as well as the ability to go up to 32 ports. The ability to do multi-site testing was a widely appreciated feature for parallel-test customers; they could have two to four test stations using the same instrument to test different components at the same time. One aerospace/defense customer noted that “We were able to decrease our test time from 10 hours to 15 minutes using the multiport measurement capabilities of the PXI VNA,” while an RF component manufacturer stated that “Moving to the PXI VNA significantly reduced the size of our RF manufacturing test systems, and at a price-point that was lower than our current measurement systems.”
As a happy surprise, the team found that the market for modular VNAs is larger than manufacturing test; it goes far beyond into such areas as stimulus response for cancer detection, and more. And the project helped the company develop best practices for highly integrated high-frequency design, something which will bear fruit in products yet to come.
Additional References
The Evolution of RF/Microwave Network Analyzers, Keysight Technical Backgrounder
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