MASTER THE BASICS

SPECTRUM ANALYZERS

Vinoth Aruchswamy
Lead Engineer – Applications
Rohde & Schwarz India
AGENDA

► When are spectrum analyzers used?

► Basic spectrum analyzer
measurements
► Types of spectrum analyzers
► Architecture of a spectrum analyzer
► Spectrum analyzer specifications
− Phase noise
− DANL
− Dynamic range
− Sweep time
− Triggering
► Basic instrument setting and
measurement
− Sensitivity and noise measurements
− Channel power & harmonics
► Portfolio overview & promotions
TIME DOMAIN ANALYSIS

The analysis of a electrical signal such as a

sinusoidal signal can easily be examined by
an instrument for time domain measurement.

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

WHAT DO SPECTRUM ANALYZERS MEASURE?
Spectrum analyzers are frequency-domain instruments
► Basic power vs. frequency measurements
► Automate some measurements (AM modulation depth, TOI,
etc.) that could be done manually
► Perform measurements that would be very difficult to do
manually (OBW, ACLR, etc.)
► Demodulate vector signals (LTE, 5G, Wi-Fi, etc.)

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

SIGNAL - FREQUENCY COMPONENTS
f1
U
11

fn
n=1

fn
f3 = 3 f1
n=1
f7 = 7 f1

f9 = 9 f1
f11 = 11 f1
f5 = 5 f1

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

SQUARE WAVE APPROACH

11

fn
n=1
amplitude

frequency

time domain

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

OSCILLOSCOPE VS SPECTRUM ANALYZER

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

OSCILLOSCOPE FFT MODE
Can a Oscilloscope measure the frequency spectrum?
Yes, most modern scopes have an FFT mode.

The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is an algorithm that can

convert a time signal into its discrete frequency components.
► This is an accurate method, but is has limitations.
► Process of a buffer capture then a computer
process to calculate the FFT.
► For large frequency spans with low resolution the
computer processing time can become significantly USE A SPECTRUM ANALYZER WHEN…
large ► Higher dynamic range is needed
► Frequency selective measurements are needed –
perform a measurement only in the band of interest
to get higher dynamic range
► Higher frequency ranges are needed
Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer
TYPES OF SPECTRUM ANALYZERS
Swept Tuned Real Time
► Sweeps across measurement span ► Captures entire measurement span (span limited)
► Captures data across series of sweeps ► FFT based – convert time sampled data to spectrum
► Swept tuned non-seamless capture ► Seamless capture (gap-free)
► Uses single narrow filter and typically has better ► Mode used for transient or interference analysis
dynamic range (frequency hopping signals)

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

WHAT IS FREQUENCY SELECTIVE INSTRUMENT
HOW DO SPECTRUM ANALYZERS WORK?

Bandpass
filter

Detector

ANALYSIS
(digital processing and display)

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

ARCHITECTURE OF MODERN SPECTRUM ANALYZERS

input stages selection voltage meter

(signal conditioning) (tunable bandpass) and display

tunable bandpass mixer bandpass

attenuator Log amplifier

IF-selection detector display

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

SIMPLIFIED BLOCK DIAGRAM
Input RF Log Envelope
Attenuator Mixer IF Amplifier IF Filter Amplifier Detector Video Filter

Input
Signal

Local
Oscillator
y

x
Display

Sweep
Generator
Rohde & Schwarz
INPUT STAGE
Input RF Log Envelope
Attenuator Mixer IF Amplifier IF Filter Amplifier Detector Video Filter

Input
Signal

Local
Oscillator
y

x
Display

Sweep
Generator
Rohde & Schwarz
 Increasing attenuation

► At 0 dB attenuation the mixer and

IF are overloaded.
► To avoid overdriving the mixer,
high input signal levels must be
attenuated.

!
Trade-off
As we increase the attenuation,
it reduces distortion but it also
raises the noise floor. (sensitivity
is lost)

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

RESOLUTION BANDWIDTH
Input RF Log Envelope
Attenuator Mixer IF Amplifier IF Filter Amplifier Detector Video Filter

Input
Signal

Local
Oscillator
y

x
Display

Sweep
Generator
Rohde & Schwarz
SELECTION OF RBW FILTER

30 KHz
f

3 KHz For this two tone example, with

higher RBW, it becomes more
difficult to distinguish between
the two tones.

!
Trade-off
Decreasing RBW causes
frequency resolution to
increase, but it also
increases the sweep time.
Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer
SELECTION OF RBW FILTER (2)
3 dB

Two signals spacing with same

amplitude
► Carrier spacing equal to RBW
=>dip of 3 dB

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

 Decreasing RBW

Increasing sweep time

!
Increased sweep time means
longer time is required to
make the measurement

Setup
► Two tones centred
at 2GHz.
► 1kHz separation.
► Tone 1: 0 dBm
► Tone 2: -50 dBm

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

APPLICATION OF WIDE RBW

Pulsed radars

Higher RBW

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

RBW VS NOISE FLOOR
Setup
► Analyzer set to zero span
so it shows power vs time.
► A factor of 10 increase in
the RBW results in a 10 dB
increase in noise floor.

RBW Setting

10 MHz
1 MHz
100 KHz
10 KHz
1 KHz

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

VIDEO BANDWIDTH
Input RF Log Envelope
Attenuator Mixer IF Amplifier IF Filter Amplifier Detector Video Filter

Input
Signal

Local
Oscillator
y

x
Display

Sweep
Generator
Rohde & Schwarz
 Reducing VBW

Reducing the VBW smooths out

the trace noise improving the trace
visually but does not improve the
noise floor

!
Trade-off
The smaller the VBW the
longer the sweep time

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

PHASE NOISE
► An ideal oscillator would produce a perfect sinusoid
Ideal Signal Ideal Signal
appearing as a single spike in the frequency domain.
A A ► Real Oscillators have phase modulated noise
components which spread the spectrum in the
frequency domain.
t ► It is defined as single sideband power due to
fluctuations in a rectangular 1 Hz BW at specified
offset from the carrier and is expressed in the units
of dBc/Hz
Frequency

Time Domain Frequency Domain

Single sideband power (from the FSW data sheet)
Real Signal Real Signal
A A

Frequenc
y
Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer
WHY IS PHASE NOISE IMPORTANT?
Phase noise can cause a signal to leak out of band !
We must be able to detect,
quantify, and mitigate the effects
Phase noise can put significant
energy in adjacent bands
of phase noise in an RF system.

Phase noise can obstruct the ability for a receiver to measure

small signals

Close in small signal can get buried

by phase noise

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

WHY PHASE NOISE IS IMPORTANT? (2)
Modulation quality (phase error / EVM / MER) is directly influenced by phase noise (Ex: QPSK)
MSK

Ref -20 dBm

1.5 U
SR
CF
100 kHz
1 GHz
Meas Signal
ConstDiag
<0.5% EVM
Const A
U
SGL
300
mU/
MSK
1
CLRWR Ref -20 dBm

1.5 U
SR
CF
100 kHz
1 GHz
Meas Signal
ConstDiag
5%
Const
U
A

SGL
EVM
300
MSK

20%
mU/
SR 100 kHz Meas Signal
FILT Ref -20 dBm CF 1 GHz ConstDiag
1
1.5 U

EVM
CLRWR

Const A
U
SGL
300
mU/

1
FILT
CLRWR

Att
5 dB
-1.5 U

-1.969335 U 393.867 mU/ 1.969335 U

FILT

Date: 7.OCT.2007 20:59:09

Att
5 dB
-1.5 U

-1.969335 U 393.867 mU/ 1.969335 U

Att
Date: 7.OCT.2007 20:58:30 5 dB
-1.5 U

-1.969335 U 393.867 mU/ 1.969335 U

Date: 7.OCT.2007 21:03:32

(Increasing phase noise = Increasing BER)

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

DISPLAYED AVERAGE NOISE LEVEL

► Displayed Average Noise Level or DANL

defines the sensitivity of a spectrum
analyzer
1 MHz

► Noise sensitivity in a spectrum analyzer is

10dB 100 kHz
thermal noise
► The theoretical sensitivity limit for a 10dB 10 kHz

receiver is -174 dBm/Hz at 290 K

► DANL is a function of both measurement
parameters and instrument quality

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

DYNAMIC RANGE
► Dynamic range provides information about the
+30 dBm MAXIMUM INPUT POWER LEVEL analyzer’s capability to simultaneously
process signals with very different levels.
+13 dBm MIXER COMPRESSION ► Dynamic range is the difference between the
high-power distortion limit and the noise floor
of the analyzer.

-37 dBm THIRD-ORDER DISTORTION Mixer 1dB Compression

185 dB Pout Ideal
168 dB -42 dBm SECOND-ORDER DISTORTION (dBm)
1dB compression
point: Pin where Pout is
1 dB lower than
Real expected
118 dB
113 dB
Pin
(dBm)
-155 dBm MINIMUM NOISE FLOOR (DANL)

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

SWEEP TIME
► Sweep time dependents on RBW, VBW and span Input RF
► Minimum sweep speed of LO sweep is practical sweep time limitation Attenuator Mixer

Input
signal

Local
Oscillator

► The lower RBW, VBW is the main determining factor in sweep time

V𝑩𝑾 ≤ 𝑹𝑩𝑾 𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑛 LO Span

𝑇𝑠𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑝 ∝ 2
𝐵𝑊 𝐼𝐹

V𝑩𝑾 > 𝑹𝑩𝑾 𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑛

𝑇𝑠𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑝 ∝
𝐵𝑊 𝑉𝐵𝑊

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

TRIGGERING
Free run
External trigger
► Demodulation
► Pulsed measurements in zero span

IF level
► Instrument is triggered when IF level reaches defined level

Video
► Instrument is triggered when video output reaches defined level

Gated trigger
► Defines measurement interval in time
► Typically used for viewing burst signals in the frequency domain

Frequency Mask Trigger (FMT)

► Real-time spectrum analyzers have frequency selective triggers to capture short duration events

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

BASIC INSTRUMENT SETTINGS
► Center frequency
► Span Display
► Reference level

► Resolution Bandwidth (RBW) Video

► Video Bandwidth (VBW) BW Filter
► Detector
Signal
BPF LPF

► Sweep time
Acquisition
► Trigger
Sawtooth

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

SPECTRUM ANALYZER MEASUREMENT FUNCTIONS
Standard measurement Advanced measurement Digital wireless
functions functions communications
► Time domain power (zero span) ► Measurement probes ► LTE
► Channel Power & Adjacent ► Noise figure ► WCDMA (UMTS)
Channel Power (CP & ACP) ► Phase noise ► GSM/EDGE
► Occupied bandwidth ► Signal analysis ► CDMA2000/1xEV-DO
► Spurious search − Digital and analog signals ► 802.11(a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
► Noise marker ► Pulsed signal analysis
► Frequency counter ► Multi-carrier group delay
► Statistics (CCDF)
► TOI
► Harmonics

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer

R&S SIGNAL & SPECTRUM ANALYZER PORTFOLIO
− 90 GHz FSW Premium Performance Class Spectrum/ Signal Analyzer
High End

− Real time − Industry leading phase noise performance and optimized sweep speed
− Wideband BW − 2 GHz/ 8.3 GHz analysis bandwidth, multi-measurement/ touchscreen control
VSE
− Pulse Analysis − 800 MHz real time signal analysis, POI = 0.46 µs
− MSRA
Mobile
FSWP FSPN FSMR3000 Communication
High End

Phase Noise and VCO Mid range phase noise Measuring Receiver. One box
up to Tester – Spectrum solution for calibrating signal
analyzer and VCO
50 GHz analyzer. Up to 320 MHz Tester Up to 26.5 GHz generators
analysis Bandwidth Wireless
Communication
FSVA3000 FSV3000 Mid range application FSVR Real Time
Purpose
General

Best in class – close to the high

up to Mid range signal & spectrum Spectrum
end. Mid range signal & spectrum
44 GHz analyzer, 1GHz analysis bandwidth
analyzer, 200 MHz analysis Analyzer 40 MHz General
bandwidth RTSA up to 40 GHz Purpose

FPS FPL Aerospace

Purpose
General

Signal analysis for production. Portable Spectrum Analyzer

Exceptional fast signal & spectrum FPL: Up to 7.5 GHz with midrange function & Defense
analyzer up to 40 GHz FSL FSL: Up to 18 GHz with high end functions
FS-Z
Convertors
FPH FSH ZPH ZVH FPC1000/FSC
Handheld &

Handheld Spectrum/ Network/ Handheld Cable & Antenna

Portable

Modulation Analyzer for field Analyzer for installation & General purpose spectrum
maintenance analysis. Compact, low
Broadcast
applications up to 31.5 GHz,
20 GHz respectively power consumption Analyzer

Rohde & Schwarz Master your spectrum analyzer