Product of the Year Story Behind the Story: Keithley’s 2910/2810 RF Signal Source/Generator

Product of the Year Story Behind the Story: Keithley’s 2910/2810 RF Signal Source/Generator

Walt Strickler, Business Unit Manager for Wireless Test at Keithley Instruments (Cleveland, OH) describes the conditions leading up to the creation of the 2910 Vector Signal Generator and 2810 Vector Signal Analyzer as those of a “Perfect Storm.”

For one thing, customers were asking if the company could come up with a product that would do for RF what they had done for power supplies with their 2600 series and for audio analysis with their 2015/2016. For another, the company wanted to stretch its wings to cover new areas of technology. Finally, Keithley had recently opened its California RF Design Center in Santa Rosa, and now had the technical talent it needed to tackle higher-frequency tasks.

There were five things that RF designers told Strickler they were looking for:

1. High-performance, no compromise RF testing for WCDMA and other advanced technologies.

2. Fast operation to test many devices quickly, to meet a booming demand for mobile devices.

3. Flexibility, so the instruments could keep up with changing specs like 802.11

4. Ease of use, so inexperienced users anywhere in the world could rapidly learn to run tests

5. And all this had to be provided at a very low cost, in keeping with the downward price pressure on devices that RF designers were beginning to see.

Fortunately, Mark Buffo, Keithley Engineering Manager for RF Products recalls, his group had three major assets to capitalize on: they were starting with a clean slate; they were eager to prove themselves; and they had tons of experience.

With a clean slate they were able to look forward to where stat-of-the art componentsDSPs FPGAs, DACs, and ADCswere going, and this led to the adoption of a software-defined radio architecture. Coupled with their knowledge, they could get even higher performance from latest devices.

The “Aha!” moment came when the group, which had been focusing primarily on building an RF source, realized that the same design could be “flipped” to build an RF receiver as well. This would allow development and component procurement costs to be spread out over two instruments rather than one, and thereby lower the overall price.

The clean slate also allowed the instrument designers to build an interface that permitted 90% of the instruments functionality to be grasped and used quickly and easily. It’s why they opted for a touch screen and putting the functionality into software, rather than hardware knobs and buttons.

The result? The instruments broad acceptance has opened a new market for Keithley.

Richard Comerford