Agilent
U2020 X-Series USB Peak
and Average Power Sensors
Data Sheet
Accelerate your production throughput
Accelerate your production throughput
with Agilent U2020 X-series USB peak
and average power sensors. These
sensors provide the high performance
and features needed to satisfy the
requirements of many power applications
in R&D and manufacturing, offering a fast
measurement speed of > 25,000 readings/
second to reduce testing time and cut
cost of test. The U2020 X-series comes
with two models: U2021XA (50 MHz to
18 GHz), and U2022XA (50 MHz to 40
GHz). Get the peak power measurement
capability of a power meter in a compact,
portable form with the Agilent U2020
X-series USB power sensors.
A wide peak power
dynamic range
Compact and portable
form factor
Built-in radar and
wireless presets
The U2020 X-series sensors’ dynamic
range of –30 to +20 dBm for peak
power measurements enables more
accurate analysis of very small signals, across a broader range of peak
power applications in the aerospace,
defense and wireless industries.
Internal zero and calibration
Save time and reduce measurement
uncertainty with the internal zero
and calibration function. Each U2020
X-series sensor comes with technology that integrates a dc reference
source and switching circuits into the
body of the sensor so you can zero
and calibrate the sensor while it is
connected to a device under test. This
feature removes the need for connection and disconnection from an
external calibration source, speeding
up testing and reducing connector
wear and tear.
The internal zero and calibration
function is especially important in
manufacturing and automated test
environments where each second and
each connection counts.
The U2020 X-series are standalone
sensors that operate without the need
of a power meter or an external power
supply. The sensors draw power from
a USB port and do not need additional
triggering modules to operate, making
them portable and lightweight solutions for field applications such as
base station testing. Simply plug the
sensor to the USB port of your PC
or laptop, and start your power
measurements.
Fast rise and fall time; wide
video bandwidth
Accurately measure the output power
and timing parameters of pulses when
designing or manufacturing components and subcomponents for radar
systems. The U2020 X-series USB
power sensors come with a 30 MHz
bandwidth and ≤ 13 ns rise and fall
time, providing a high performance
peak and average power solution
that covers most high frequency test
applications up to 40 GHz.
Begin testing faster; the U2020
X-series USB power sensors come
with built-in radar and wireless
presets for DME, GSM, EDGE, CDMA,
WCDMA, WLAN, WiMAX, and LTE.
Bundled intuitive power
analysis software
The U2020 X-series USB power sensors are bundled with a free N1918A
Option 100 Power Analyzer PC license
key. Simply connect the USB power
sensor and the PC will recognize the
license.
A N1918A Power Analysis Manager
software CD will be shipped together
with the U2021XA or U2022XA. Users
can also download the software from
www.agilent.com/find/N1918A.
Built-in trigger in/trigger out
An external trigger enables accurate
triggering of small signals close to the
signal noise floor. The U2020 X-series
USB power sensors come with
built-in trigger in/out connection,
allowing you to connect an external
trigger signal from a signal source or
the device-under-test directly to the
USB sensor through a standard BNC
to SMB cable. The sensors also come
with recorder/video-output features.
2
Complementary Cumulative
Distribution Function (CCDF)
curves
CCDF characterizes the high power
statistics of a digitally modulated signal, and is defined by how much time
the waveform spends at or above a
given power level. The U2020 X-series
supports two types of CCDF curves.
Normal CCDF displays the power statistics of the whole waveform under
free run, internal or external trigger
modes. Gated CCDF can be coupled
with a measurement gate and only
the waveform within the gated region
is analyzed statistically. Gated CCDF
is only applicable in internal trigger
and external trigger modes.
Designers of components, such
as power amplifiers, will compare
the CCDF curves of a signal at the
amplifier’s input and output. A well
designed component will produce
curves that overlap each other. If the
amplifier compresses the signal, then
the peak-to-average ratio of the signal
will be lower at the output of the
amplifier. The designer will need to
improve the range of the amplifier to
handle high peak power.
3
Additional U2020 X-Series Features
List mode
List mode is a mode of operation
where a predefined sequence of measurement steps can be programmed
into the power sensor and repeatedly
executed as many times as required.
This mode is suitable for power and
frequency sweeps which normally
require changing the parameters
via the appropriate SCPI commands
before performing a measurement.
The hardware handshaking communication between the power sensor and
the signal source provides the fastest
possible execution time in performing
the test sequences.
Trigger and gating parameters control
which part of the waveform to be
included or excluded from the
measurement. The list mode helps
to analyze modulated signals with
regular and time- slotted or frame
structure. For example, eight timeslotted GSM bursts, LTE-FDD and
LTE-TDD frames and sub-frames,
WCDMA frames and slots, and timeslotted measurements are supported
in this mode. The desired number of
slots and their duration and exclusion
intervals can be easily programmed.
For more information, please refer
to the U2020 X-Series Programming
Guide.
Decreasing the aperture size will
improve the measurement throughput
but reduce the signal-to-noise ratio
of the measured signal. However,
increasing the aperture size will
improve the signal-to-noise ratio of
the measured signal but reduce the
measurement throughput.
Measurement
speed
NORMal 50 ms Yes
DOUBle 26 ms No
FAST 2 ms No
Table 1. Aperture size
Default
aperture
size
Adjustable
Auto burst detection
Auto burst detection helps the
measurement setup of the trace
or gate positions and sizes, and
triggering parameters on a large
variety of complex modulated signals
by synchronizing to the RF bursts.
After a successful auto- scaling, the
triggering parameters such as the
trigger level, delay, and hold- off are
automatically adjusted for optimum
operation. The trace settings are also
adjusted to align the RF burst to the
center of the trace display.
20-pulse measurements
The U2020 X-Series can measure up
to 20 pulses. The measurement of
radar pulse timing characteristics is
greatly simplified and accelerated by
performing analysis simultaneously
on up to 20 pulses within a single
capture. Individual pulse duration,
period, duty cycle and separation,
positive or negative transition
duration, and time (relative to the
delayed trigger point) are measured.
High average count reset
When high averaging factors have
been set, any rapid adjustments to
the amplitude of the measured signal
will be delayed due to the need to
allow the averaging filter to fill before
a new measurement can be taken
at a stable power level. The U2020
X-Series allows you to reset the long
filter after the final adjustment to the
signal’s amplitude has been made.
Variable aperture size
In average only mode and at normal
measurement speed, the time
interval length used to measure the
average power of the signal can
be adjusted by setting the aperture
size to between 2 ms and 200 ms.
This is useful for CW signals and
noise-like modulated signals such as
FDD-LTE and WCDMA by performing
measurements over the full frames or
sub-frames.
4
Performance specifications
Specification definitions
There are two types of product
specifications:
• Warranted specifications are
specifications which are covered
by the product warranty and apply
over a range of 0 to 55 °C unless
otherwise noted. Warranted specifications include measurement
uncertainty calculated with a
95 % confidence
• Characteristic specifications
are specifications that are not
warranted. They describe product
performance that is useful in the
application of the product. These
characteristic specifications are
shown in italics.
Characteristic information is representative of the product. In many cases,
it may also be supplemental to a war-
ranted specification. Characteristics
specifications are not verified on
all units. There are several types of
characteristic specifications. They
can be divided into two groups:
One group of characteristic types
describes ‘attributes’ common to all
products of a given model or option.
Examples of characteristics that
describe ‘attributes’ are the product
weight and ’50-ohm input Type-N connector’. In these examples, product
weight is an ‘approximate’ value and
a 50-ohm input is ‘nominal’. These
two terms are most widely used when
describing a product’s ‘attributes’.
The second group describes `statistically’ the aggregate performance of
the population of products. These
characteristics describe the expected
U2020 X-Series USB Power Sensors Specifications
behavior of the population of
products. They do not guarantee the
performance of any individual product.
No measurement uncertainty value
is accounted for in the specification.
These specifications are referred to
as `typical’.
Conditions
The power sensor will meet its
specifications when:
• storedforaminimumoftwohours
at a stable temperature within the
operating temperature range, and
turned on for at least 30 minutes
• thepowersensoriswithinits
recommended calibration period,
and
• usedinaccordancetotheinformation provided in the User’s Guide.
Key specifications
Frequency range
Dynamic power range
Damage level 23 dBm (average power)
Rise/fall time ≤ 13 ns
Maximum sampling rate
Video bandwidth
Single-shot bandwidth
Minimum pulse width
Average power measurement accuracy
Maximum capture length
Maximum pulse repetition rate
Connector type
1. Internal zeroing, trigger output, and video output are disabled in average only mode.
2. It is advisable to perform zeroing when using the average path for the first time after power on, significant temperature
changes, or long periods since the last zeroing. Ensure that the power sensor is isolated from the RF source when performing
external zeroing in average only mode.
3. For frequencies ≥ 500 MHz. Only applicable when the Off video bandwidth is selected.
4. The Minimum Pulse Width is the recommended minimum pulse width viewable, where power measurements are
meaningful and accurate, but not warranted.
5. Specification is valid over a range of –15 to +20 dBm, and a frequency range of 0.5 to 10 GHz, DUT Max. SWR <1.27 for the
U2021XA, and a frequency range of 0.5 to 40 GHz, DUT Max. SWR <1.2 for the U2022XA. Averaging set to 32, in Free Run mode.
U2021XA 50 MHz to 18 GHz
U2022XA 50 MHz to 40 GHz
Normal mode
Average only mode
30 dBm (< 1 μs duration) (peak power)
3
80 Msamples/sec, continuous sampling
≥ 30 MHz
≥ 30 MHz
4
50 ns
U2021XA ≤ ±0.2 dB or ±4.5%
U2022XA ≤ ±0.3 dB or ±6.7%
1 s (decimated)
1.2 ms (at full sampling rate)
10 MHz (based on 8 samples/period)
U2021XA N-Type (m)
U2022XA 2.4 mm (m)
–35 dBm to 20 dBm (≥ 500 MHz)
–30 dBm to 20 dBm (50 MHz to 500 MHz)
1,2
–45 dBm to 20 dBm
5
5
Measured rise time percentage error versus signal-under-test rise time
Figure 1. Measured rise time percentage error versus signal under test rise time
Although the rise time specification is
≤13 ns, this does not mean that the
U2021XA/22XA can accurately measure a signal with a known rise time
Measured rise time = √((SUT rise time)
of 13 ns. The measured rise time is
the root sum of the squares (RSS) of
the signal-under-test (SUT) rise time
and the system rise time (13 ns):
2
+ (system rise time)2)
and the % error is:
% Error = ((measured rise time – SUT rise time)/SUT rise time) × 100
Power Linearity
Power range
–20 dBm to –10 dBm
–10 dBm to 15 dBm
15 dBm to 20 dBm
Linearity at 5 dB step (%)
25 °C 0 to 55 °C
1.2 1.8
1.2 1.2
1.4 2.1
Video bandwidth
The video bandwidth in the
U2021XA/22XA can be set to High,
Medium, Low, and Off. The video
bandwidths stated below are not
the 3 dB bandwidths, as the video
bandwidths are corrected for optimal
flatness (except the Off filter). Refer to
Figure 2, “Characteristic peak flatness,”
for information on the flatness
response. The Off video bandwidth
setting provides the warranted rise
time and fall time specifications and
is the recommended setting for minimizing overshoot on pulse signals.
Video bandwidth setting Low: 5 MHz Medium: 15 MHz High: 30 MHz Off
Rise time/fall time
Overshoot
1. Specified as 10% to 90% for rise time and 90% to 10% for fall time on a 0 dBm pulse.
2. Specified as the overshoot relative to the settled pulse top power.
1
2
< 500 MHz
≥ 500 MHz
< 93 ns
< 82 ns
< 75 ns
< 27 ns
6
< 72 ns
< 17 ns
< 73 ns
< 13 ns
< 5%
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