Tektronix RFX100 DATASHEET

Advanced RF/IF/IQ Waveform Software

RFX100 RFXpress®Data Sheet

Radar

Create Single or Multiple Pulse Groups to form a C oherent or
Noncoherent Pulse Train

Define Each Pulse Group Independently or Ad d Different Pulse Groups
to Simulate Simultaneous Multiple Target Returns

Define Inter and Intra Pulse-hopping Patterns in both Frequency and
Amplitude

Define all Pulse Parameters including Start Time, Rise Time, Off Time,
Fall Time, Pulse Width, Droop, Overshoot, and Ripple

Define a Staggered PRI with Ramp, User-defined Pro files and Add up
to 10 Different Multipaths

Create a User-defined Pulse Sequence and use the AWG Sequence
Mode to Optimize the Memory and to Create a Large Number of Pulses*

Support for a Variety of Intra-modulation Types including FM Chirp,
QPSK, BPSK, FM Step, Barker/Frank/Polyphase Codes including

Features & Benefits

Quickly and Simply Create Digitally Modulated IQ, IF, and RF Waveforms

Great Flexibility to Customize Waveform to Meet Specific Requirements

Define Baseband IQ, IF, and RF Signals using a Variety of Modulation
Schemes

Create Single and Multicarrier Signals where E ach Carrier is
Independently Defined

Define and Create Hopping Patterns

Apply Impairments such as Quadrature Error and Imbalance or
Nonlinear Impairments

Add Sinusoidal Interferences, Noise (SNR), and Multipaths during
Waveform Creation

Capture and Replay Waveforms from Oscilloscopes, Real-time
Spectrum Analyzers, and MATLAB

®*1

files as IQ or IF/RF

P1/P2/P3/P4, User-defined Step FM/AM and Step PM/AM, and Custom
Modulation

Define Antenna Beam Profile and Simulate Target Returns

Generic OFDM

Configure All Parts of Your OFDM Signal. Build Your Own OFDM Frame
from Base Data to Packets to Frames

Support for Reed Solomon, Convolution Coding, and Scrambling

Add Impai

Define Frequency Hopping and Gated Noise

Support for a Variety of Subcarrier Modulation Formats including BPSK,
QPSK, QAM (16, 32, 64, 256), and 8-PSK

Support for Tone Nulling and Clipping

Presets for WiFi and WiMAX Standards

rments such as Phase Noise, Multipath, and Quantization

3

Add Impairments or Interference and then Replay Captured Waveforms

Support for Characterizing a DUT a nd S-parameter Emulation of RF
Components

Apply Calibration for Flat Frequency and Linear Phase Response out
of AWG

Support for Programmatic Interface in General-purpose and R adar
Plug-ins enables Easy Integration of RFXpress into Test Automation
Systems

Data Sheet

UWB-WiMedia

Direct RF Generation of all the WiMed ia Band Groups (BG1 to BG6)
including Band Hopping*

2

Comprehensive WiMedia Signal Generation Support for MAC and PHY
Layers

Gated Noise Feature can be Used to Define Noise Profiles, which can
be Defined Individually for Each Section of the UW B Packet (Preamble,
PPDU HeadBer, and PSDU)

Create Tone Nulling with Intermediate Values for both Amplitude (+20 dB
to –40 dB) and Phase (–180° to +180°) for OFDM Carrier Mapping

Apply Ready-to-Use "Real-world Interference" like WiFi (802.11a
and MIMO), WiMAX, Radar, and Captured Baseband Waveforms as
Interferer to the WiMedia Waveform

Define Your Own TFC Pattern in Custom Mode

Applications

Design, Characterize, and Debug Wideband Wireless Communications
Receivers

Generate General-purpose Digitally Modulated IQ, IF, and RF Signals

Design, Debug, and Development of Radar Receivers and Radar
Systems

Characterize WiMedia MB-OFDM Ultra Wideband (UWB) Radio Platform
for Applications like Wireless USB (WUSB), FireW ire, Bluetooth, and
Others

*1MATLAB®is a registered trademark of Math Works.

2

Using Tektronix AWG7122 models with Option 06, BG5 requires calibration.

*

3

Using a Tektronix AWG7000 or AWG5000 Series AWG wit

*

RF Signal Gen eration Made Easy

RF signals ar
for RF engineers to accurately create the sign als required for conformance
and margin testing. To address this design challenge, RFXpress delivers
advanced RF/IF/IQ cre ation and editing tools. RFXpress is a software
package that digitally synthesizes modulated baseband, IF, and RF signals
taking signal generation to the new levels by fully exploiting the wideband
signal gene
(AWGs).

e becoming more and more com plex, making it more difficult

ration capabilities of Tektronix arbitrary waveform generators

hOption08.

Digitally Modulated signals are easily created with the base RFXpress
package. Supporting a wide range of modulation schemes, the software
allows users to

create standard waveforms or customized waveforms with
specific modulation and frequency-hopping criteria. In Auto mode, the
software can automatically calculate the waveform length (in time (sec),
samples, or symbols) and the sampling rate required to accurately create
the desired output from the arbitrary waveform generator.

RFXpress also includes a calibration feature that can pre-distort the signals
to provide flat frequency and linear phase response from the AWG output.
RFXpress enables users to easily replicate waveforms from Tektronix
oscilloscope

s (*.wfm), and IQ waveforms of a real-time spectrum analyzer
(*.iqt, *.tiq). Impairments, distortion, or interference can then be added to
thoroughly stress test designs.

Radar Signal Creation is a software module for RFXpress that provides the
ultimate in flexibility for creating Pulsed Radar waveforms. It gives users the
ability to build custom Radar Pulse suites starting from pulse-to-pulse trains
to pulse groups. It supports a variety of modulation schemes including LFM,
Up-Down Chirp, QPSK, BPSK, B arker/F rank/Polyphase Codes including
P1/P2/P3/P4

, Step FM, Nonlinear FM, User-defined Step FM/AM and
Step PM/AM, and Custom Modulation. It also has the ability to generate
pulse trains with staggered PRI to resolve Range and Doppler ambiguity,
frequency hopping for Electronic Count e r-Counter Measures (ECCM), and
pulse-to-pulse amplitude va riation to simulate Swerling target models,
including antenna scan patterns and multipath effects.

Generic OFDM Creation is a software module for RFXpress that allows
users to configure every part of the OFDM signal definition. It allows users
to build the

signal symbol-by-symbol to create a complete OFDM frame.
RFXpress supports a variety of data coding formats that include Reed
Solomon, Convolution, and Scrambling. Each subcarrier in the symbol can
be configured independently for Type, Modulation, and Base Data. You
could then add Zero Padding or Cyclic Prefix. Symbols can be modified by
specifying the clipping ratio and tone nulling. A symbol table give s you a
summary of a

ll the carriers in the selected symbol. OFDM packets/frames
can be built by specifying the spacing between the symbols/frames. Parts of
theOFDMpacketscanbestressedbyaddingGatedNoisetoit.

SPARA is a software module for RFXpress that provides emulation of RF
components from touchstone files. You can cascade multiple touchstone
files to emulate a RF chain. The effect of the RF component can also be
de-embedded by selecting the Inversion option. This option also adds a
provision to characterize a two-port device (DUT). A wizard guides you
through a s

tep-by-step process to obtain S21 characteristics (Insertion

Loss) of the device in a text format.

2 www.tektronix.com

Advanced RF/IF/IQ Waveform So ftware — RFX100 RFXpress

®

UWB-WiMedia (UWBCF/UWBCT) is a software module for RFXpress
that has the capability to digitally synthesize and generate signals in the
UWB spectrum. A

s per the latest WiMedia specification, the software

module can recreate signals that are required to band hop in real time over

1.5 GHz modulation bandwidth. UWBCF/UWBCT gives users complete
control over the characteristics of the WiMedia signal including the preamble
synchronization sequences, cover sequences, and TFCs in all band groups.
All six band groups (BG1 to BG6) can be generated in either IQ, IF, or Direct
RF signals giv

ing users 3 different options for creating/up-convert in g the
signals. The software operates in two modes, in the conformance mode
(UWBCF) users can generate the standard waveforms that conform to the
latest version of the WiMedia’s specifications, in the custom mode (UWBCT)
users can adjust any part of the signal header or payload to perform for
stress and margin testing.

RFXpress runs on a PC or as an integral part of Tektronix AWG7000 and
AWG5000 Series arbitrary waveform generators.

Characteristics*

*4All ranges mentioned in the data sheet are for AWG7122 models with Opt. 06 until and otherwise explicitly

stated.

4

Software

Digital Modulation software creation package.

Compatibility for Import and Replication of Waveform Files

Product Description

Oscilloscopes Tektronix TDS6000, MSO70000, DSA70000, DPO70000, and

DPO7000 Series (*.wfm)

Arbitrary
Waveform

x AWG400, AWG500, AWG600, and AWG700 Series

Tektro n i
(*.wfm)

Generators
Real-time

Tektronix RSA3000 and RSA6000 Series (*.iqt , *.tiq)
Spectrum
Analyzers

Others MATLAB®*1Binary Formats (*.mat), ADS®*5(*.txt), VSA®*

5

(*.csv)

*1MATLAB®is a registered trademark of Math Works.

5

®

,ADS®, VSA®are registered trademarks of Agilent Technologies.

*

PSG

Instrument Control

Characteristic

Tekt r o nix

Arbitrary

Waveform

Generators

Description

RFXpress runs on an external PC or an integral part of the
AWG7000 and AWG5000 Series. When installed as an integral
part of the instrument waveform transfer and control can be
performed directly from RFXpress.

Controls

Analog

Sampling Rate, Interleave and Zeroing On/Off, Amplitude,
Offset, Run, Stop and Channel Output On/Off, Sequence Run
Mode (For radar plug-in only)

Digital markers Amplitude High, Low, and Delay

Tekt r o nix

Oscilloscopes

Remote-control Tektronix oscilloscope parameters from
RFXpress

Controls

General

Run, Stop, Single, and Autoset

settings
Vertical

Channel, Scale

settings
Horizontal

Scale, Record Length, Sampling Rate

settings

Tekt r o nix

Spectrum

Analyzers

Remote-control Tektronix real-time spectrum analyzer
parameters from RFXpress

Controls

Settings Center, Start, Stop Frequency, Span, Step Size, Max Trace

Points

Acquire
Analysis

IQ Modulators

Bandwidth, Samples, and Length
Offset, Length, Time Zero Ref, Amplitude Ref Levels
Remote-control PSG®*5– E8267D modulator parameters from

RFXpress

Controls Frequency, Frequency Offset, Amplitude, Amplitude Offset,

Output RF On/Off, Output Mod On/Off, Source Type, Frequency
Mode, ALC On/Off, ALC Mode, ALC Bandwidth, ALC Levels,
Attenuation Hold On/Off, ALC Power, Attenuation

Carrier leakage

IQ State, IQ Adjustment, I Offset and Q Offset

suppression

*5PSG®,ADS®,VSA®are registered trademarks of Agilent Technologies.

www.tektronix.com 3