Tektronix Spectrum Analyzer User Manual

It’s Time To Get Real.

Your Guide to Selecting the Right Real-Time Spectrum Analyzer

Complex RF Problems

Require a New Type of Analysis

Today’s RF signals change over time, often unpredictably. To effectively characterize these signals, you need a
tool that can discover and trigger on both known and unpredictable events, capture the signals seamlessly
into memory, and analyze the behavior of frequency, amplitude, and modulation parameters over time. Using
traditional tools like swept spectrum analyzers and vector signal analyzers might provide snapshots of the signal
in the frequency and modulation domains, but this is often not enough information to confidently describe the
dynamic RF signals produced by the device under test. By providing insight into how parameters change over
continuous time, the Real-Time Spectrum Analyzer adds another crucial dimension to all of these measurements.

RSA3300A Series

With a single acquisition, the RSA3300A Series
captures a continuous time record of changing
RF events and enable time-correlated analysis
in the frequency, time and modulation domains.

Select Y

Model Series

RSA3303A

RSA3308A DC-8 GHz 64 MB, AM, FM 15 MHz IF Level,

RSA3408A DC-8 GHz 64 MB, AM, FM 36 MHz Power and

RSA6106A

RSA6114A

our Real-Time Spectrum Analyzer Performance

RTSA

Frequency Memory Modulation Real-Time Capture Triggering

Range Depth Analysis Bandwidth Modes

DC-3 GHz 64 MB, AM, FM 15 MHz IF Level,

9 kHz - 6.2 GHz

9 kHz - 14 GHz

256 MB optional

256 MB optional (ASK, FSK), PM, Power and

256 MB optional (ASK, FSK), PM, Opt. Frequency

256 MB,

1 GB optional Phase vs Time and 110 MHz optional Opt. Frequency

256 MB,

1 GB optional Phase vs Time and 110 MHz optional Opt. Frequency

(ASK, FSK), PM, Power and

Pulse Analysis; Opt. Frequency

optional general purpose Mask Trigger

digital mod analysis

Pulse Analysis; Opt. Frequency

optional general purpose Mask Trigger

digital mod analysis

Pulse Analysis; Mask Trigger

optional general purpose

digital mod analysis

Amplitude, Frequency, 40 MHz Power and

Advance Signal (Pulse)Analysis

optional general purpose

digital mod analysis

Amplitude, Frequency

Advance Signal (Pulse)Analysis

optional general purpose

digital mod analysis

, 40 MHz Power and

Mask Trigger

Mask T

rigger

RSA3408A Series

Get fast resolution to complex problems with

enhanced triggering, more capture bandwidth

and great analysis tools with the RSA3408A.

RSA6100A Series

The RSA6100A Series offers the revolutionary

®

spectrum display with an intuitive live

DPX
color view of signal transients changing over
time in the frequency domain, giving you
immediate confidence in the stability of your
design, or instantly displaying a fault when
it occurs.

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It’s Time to Get Real.

Completely Characterize Time-varying RF Signals

Multiple correlated views

in all domains (Frequency, Time,
Amplitude, Phase, Modulation)
with intuitive user interface.

Revolutionary DPX®spectrum
processing

troubleshooting and live transient
analysis.

Touch screen, mouse and front
panel controls

in the views.

Windows XP Operating System

with Tek OpenChoice®for easy file
operations, printing, Ethernet and
GPIB control, remote connections
and more.

wo external triggers

T

key event information (1 front, 1 rear).

for unmatched

directly adjust settings

to capture

Two frequency ranges:

9 kHz to 6.2 GHz (RSA6106A) or
9 kHz to 14 GHz (RSA6114A).

DVD ±RW (standard) for waveform

storage. Removable HDD (optional)
for data security.

Familiar spectrum analyzer
controls

acquisition and measurement
settings.

USB connections (2 front, 2 rear),

for mouse, keyboard and memory.

plus fast access to all

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DC-Protected Input

40 V DC, over entire frequency

±
range, +30 dBm CW
Maximum.

RSA Real-T

ime Spectrum Analyzers

, 75W Pulse

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Discover

Easily Problems Using the Revolutionary DPX®Spectrum Display

Detection is the first step in understanding and resolving any problem relating to time-variant signals. As new
applications utilize wireless transmission, new channels crowd into available bandwidth, and RF systems become
digital-based, engineers need better tools to help them find and interpret complex behaviors and interactions.

ektronix’ patented Digital Phosphor technology, standard in our RSA6100A Series Real-Time Spectrum Analyzers,

T
reveals signal details that are completely missed by conventional spectrum analyzers and vector signal analyzers.

®

The DPX
accelerating discovery and diagnosis.

Spectrum’s live RF display shows signals never seen before, giving users instant insight and greatly

Revolutionary DPX spectrum display
reveals transient signal behavior that
helps you discover instability, glitches
and interference.

Infrequently occurring transient is seen
in detail. The frequency of occurrence is
color-graded, indicating the infrequent
transient event in blue and the noise
background in red.

Performing >48,000 frequency
transforms per second, transients as
brief as 24
in the frequency domain. This is a
1000-fold improvement over swept
analysis techniques. Events can be
color coded by rate of occurrence
onto a bitmapped display, providing
unparalleled insight into transient
signal behavior.

DPX Spectrum display after
5 seconds. Bitmap color mapping
is “Spectral”, to emphasize
infrequent signals with hot colors.
MaxHold trace is indicated in yellow.

µs in length are displayed

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Trigger

the Only Spectrum Analyzers with Frequency Domain Triggering

Real-Time Spectrum Analyzers overcome the challenges associated with today’s complex RF signals with both
frequency and time domain event triggers. These advanced triggers provide the ability to capture a seamless
record of RF signals into memory and perform time-correlated, multi-domain analysis.

Unlike traditional swept spectrum analyzers, the Real-Time Spectrum Analyzer offers a Power Trigger with
user-settable span, enabling spectrum capture whenever the power of any signal crosses a user-defined
threshold. Tektronix’ exclusive Frequency Mask Trigger enables the capture of the spectrum of interest when
a discrete change in signal frequency, amplitude, or bandwidth occurs, or when a signal appears or disappears.
Frequency Mask Triggering occurs even if spectral events are detected at a much lower level than adjacent
signals. In addition, the flexibility of the Frequency Mask Trigger enables the creation of a customizable mask
that can monitor multiple different frequency bands within the analysis span.

Using the Frequency Mask Trigger and
Spectrogram to determine if interference with
specific WLAN packets is coming from a
Bluetooth transimitter or a microwave oven.

Frequency Mask Trigger can
catch unknown, transient
or low duty cycle signals in
a multi-signal spectrum

Point-click-and-drag editor
makes mask set-up easy

Trigger can be used in an
exceed threshold or “fall under”
threshold mode

Trigger position can be set to
designate what percentage of
the captured time record will
be pre-trigger and post-trigger

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Capture

Continously a Seamless Time Record of a Span of RF Frequencies

As the complexity of new RF components, devices and systems continues to increase, the ability to acquire and
store a record of time-variant RF signal activity and thoroughly analyze its unique behavior – over time, in multiple
domains – is becoming increasingly essential. Tektronix’ Real-Time Spectrum Analyzers meet these requirements
by seamlessly capturing and recording all the signals across a user-selected span – up to 110 MHz, depending
upon model used. Transient, pulsed and other time-variant signals are all captured as a seamless time record into
deep memory. Some models also include an option for streaming live IQ data to an output for external recording
and analysis.

User adjustable color scaling shows signal
amplitude transitions

Spectrogram showing oscillator
turn-on settling characteristic enables
measurement frequency variance
over time

Marker/delta markers provide signal amplitude,
frequency, frame number and time

Time

Frequency

Readouts show first and last spectra
(frame) displayed, with color scaling
that indicates amplitude

Spectrogram showing a pulsed AM signal...
measure spectral occupancy and amplitude,
timing between pulses. Also measure transient
signals at carrier turn-on time

rigger/pre-trigger time designation

T

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Analyze

Complex RF Signals Completely

The analysis capabilities of the Real-T
in the frequency, time and modulation domains, enabling much faster resolution of complex problems that often
occur in today’s RF systems.

By acquiring a record of real-time signal behavior, the Real-Time Spectrum Analyzer supports numerous powerful
analysis tools. One example is the spectrogram display, which plots frequency and amplitude changes over time.
It provides an intuitive, three-dimensional display of the time-varying signal behavior, not seen in traditional frequency
domain plots. This view makes it easy to see phenomena such as modulation switching, signal hand-offs, frequency
hops and settling time between pulses, and changes in frequency over time.

In addition to providing time-correlated multi-domain analysis on a wide variety of signals, certain Tektronix Real-Time
Spectrum Analyzers support the latest mobile and wireless data standards, as well as providing a general purpose
digital modulation analysis on a wide variety of formats. With time-correlated views across the frequency, time and
modulation domains and a full range of analysis capabilities, you gain unprecedented insight into RF signal behavior
for complete characterization and quick problem-solving.

ime Spectrum Analyzer provide simultaneous time-correlated views of a signal

Time-correlated views relate EVM,
symbol value or constellation with
frequency vs. power or spectrogram
representation of a digital signal

View Multiple Domains At Your Convenience

Overview window: power vs. time

Sub-view window: choice of frequency vs.
amplitude, constellation, EVM, many other
displays

Color-keyed lines show timing of Main View
analysis and Sub-View spectrum analysis and
trigger time

Measurements are time-correlated

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Automated measurements for EVM,
Magnitude Error
number where each measurement peaks

, Phase Error

, plus symbol

Settings for modulation
parameters, such as
symbol rate, measurement
filter and alpha/BW
product

Views for EVM vs. time,
eye diagram, constellation
(with and without transitions),
IQ amplitude (or frequency
for GFSK) vs. time

Modulation analysis for:
BPSK; QPSK; 16, 32, 64,
256 QAM; 8PSK;
GMSK; GFSK and more

π/4 DQPSK;

Main view window: time vs. amplitude,
time vs. frequency, time vs. phase,
many other views

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Application

Solutions for Your Digital RF Challenges

Example Applications Benefiting from Key Standard Capabilities and Options

Analysis Feature

General Signal RF Communication Spectrum Radar & Pulsed SDR and

Analysis Systems Management Signals Cognitive Radio WiMAX WLAN RFID Cellular RSA6100A RSA34 08A RS A330 0A

DPX®Spectrum Processing X X X X X X X X X standard

Multi-Domain Correlation X X X X X X X X X standard standard standard

Hi-res Spectrogram X X X X X X X X X standard standard standard

eamplifier

nal Pr

Inter

External Preamplifier XX X optional optional

110 MHz Capture Bandwidth X X X X X optional

40 MHz Capture Bandwidth XX X X X standard

36 MHz Capture Bandwidth X X X X X X X X standard

15 MHz Capture Bandwidth X X X X X X X standard

Power Trigger X X X X X X X X standard optional optional

Frequency Mask Trigger X X X X X X X X X optional optional optional

General Purpose Modulation Analysis XX X X optional optional optional

Removable HDD X X optional optional

X

Applications Product Series

X

X optional

Digital IQ Output XXXX optional optional

Analog IF Output X X X X optional standard

Differential Analog IQ Input X X X X X optional optional

Pulsed RF Analysis XX XX optional optional

Advanced Analysis Pulsed Signal Suite X

AM/AM, AM/PM, 1 dB Compression XX XX X optional optional

Cellular Standards Analysis XX X X optional optional optional

802.11a/b/g/n Analysis XX X optional

RFID Analysis X optional optional

WiMAX Analysis X optional optional optional

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X

X

optional

RSA Real-T

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Contact Tektronix:

ASEAN / Australasia (65) 6356 3900

Austria [phone]

Balkan, Israel, South Africa and other ISE Countries [phone]

Belgium 07 81 60166

Brazil & South America (11)

Canada 1 [phone]

Central East Eur

ope, Ukraine and the Baltics

Central Europe & Greece [phone]

Denmark [phone]

Finland [phone]

France [phone]

many

Ger

Hong Kong (852) 2585-6688

India (91) 80-22275577

Italy [phone]

Japan 81 (3) 6714-3010

Luxembour

g

Mexico, Central America & Caribbean 52 (55) 5424700

Middle East, Asia and Nor

th Africa

The Netherlands 090 02 021797

People’s Republic of China 86 (10) 6235 1230

Poland [phone]

Por

Republic of Korea 82 (2) 528-5299

Russia & CIS [phone]

South Africa +

Spain ([phone]

Sweden 020 08 80371

Switzerland [phone]

Taiwan 886 (2) 2722-9622

United Kingdom & Eire [phone]

USA 1 [phone]

For other areas contact Tektronix, Inc. at: 1 [phone]

Updated 15 September 2006

40669400

[phone]

[phone]

[phone]

[phone]

Norway 800 16098

tugal

80 08 12370

27 11 254 8360

For Further Information

onix maintains a compr

Tektr
collection of application notes, technical briefs and other

esources to help engineers working on the cutting edge of

r

ehensive, constantly expanding

technology. Please visit www.tektronix.com

Copyright © 2007, Tektronix. All rights reserved. Tektronix products are covered by
U.S. and for
sedes that in all previously published material. Specification and price change
privileges reserved. TEKTRONIX and TEK are registered trademarks of Tektronix,
Inc. All other trade names referenced are the service marks, trademarks or regis-

ed trademarks of their r

ter
03/07 DM/PT/ xxx 37W-19913-1

patents, issued and pending. Infor

eign

espective companies.

mation in this publication super

-