3-2016

RF & Wireless
Plume Series Dual Band flexible internal antenna
Software
in security, home automation,
appliances, lighting, medical/
telemedicine, sensors, network
monitoring, data collection,
wearables, automotive, in-vehicle
communication, and vending.
The Plume Series W3315B0100
WiFi very compact 6 x 45 mm
antenna has a maximum antenna
gain of 2 dBi on the low band
and 5 dBi on the upper band
with over 60% efficiency across
the bands.
Pulse Electronics‘ new Plume
Series dual-band antenna covers
lower band WiFi frequencies
2.4-2.5 GHz and upper band
frequencies 4.9-5.9 GHz. The
flexible nature of the antenna‘s
construction, low profile, and
small form factor make it easily
adaptable to most industrial
design parameters and aesthetic
requirements. It is omni-directional
in the x-y plane. The 100
mm cable assembly with its standard
IPEX/U.FL-compliant coax
connector pigtail easily connects
to wireless radios and modules
for WiFi 802.11 as well as Zigbee,
Bluetooth, and Bluetooth
Low Energy frequency bands.
Adhesive backing makes installation
easy.
„The challenge for creators of
IoT products is to make them
small, extremely functional, yet
have them look great,“ said Olivier
Robin, general manager for
Pulse Electronics Wireless Infrastructure
business unit, „and they
also have to be easy to assemble
to meet time-to-market requirements.
Pulse has incorporated
the high quality performance
capabilities of its antennas into
an antenna that fits these needs.“
Pulse Electronics‘ Plume Series
W3315B0100 dual-band flexible
printed circuit antenna is RoHS
compliant and supports IEEE
standards including 802.11n
and 802.11ac. It is available
in several configurations with
custom cable length and connector
options available.
■ Pulse Electronics
www.pulseelectronics.com
PAM-4 Analysis Software for Oscilloscope Platforms
Keysight introduced measurement
application software designed
to help engineers quickly
and accurately measure and
quantify PAM-4 (pulse amplitude
modulation with four amplitude
levels) signals. The software
is used with the Keysight
S-Series, 90000A, V-Series,
90000 X- and Z-Series realtime
oscilloscope platforms
and the 86100D DCA-X Infiniium
sampling oscilloscope. The
new Keysight N8836A PAM-4
analysis software (for S-Series,
90000A, V-Series, 90000 X-
and Z-Series oscilloscopes)
and the new N1085A PAM-4
analysis software (for 86100D
oscilloscopes) provide comprehensive
characterization of
electrical PAM-4 signals based
on the Optical Internetworking
Forum’s Common Electrical
Interface (OIF-CEI 4.0) proposed
56G interfaces, and the
emerging IEEE 400 Gigabit
Ethernet (P802.3bs) standard.
Mobile computing applications
are demanding more of the
underlying computer Internet
infrastructure. To enable increases
in Internet and server-farm
performance, higher-speed connectivity
among server systems
is required. Conventional communication
techniques often
relied upon NRZ (non-returnto-zero)
encoding, but excessive
channel losses and crosstalk on
56 Gb/s NRZ links make this
technology impractical for many
applications. One way to overcome
this challenge is to change
the modulation technique from
NRZ to pulse amplitude modulation.
This allows engineers to
dramatically increase the amount
of data they can send across
high-speed digital communication
links. However, there is not
yet consensus within the governing
bodies of communication
standards as to how to measure
PAM-4 signals for compliance.
Measurement
applications
The N8836A and N1085A
PAM-4 measurement applications
for S-Series, 90000A,
V-Series, 90000 X- and Z-Series
real-time oscilloscopes and
86100D DCA-X Series sampling
oscilloscopes deliver measurements
such as:
• Linearity and output voltage
measurements including level
separation mismatch ratio
(RLM)
• Eye width (EW) and eye
height (EH)
• Jitter measurements including
even-odd jitter and clock random
jitter
• Differential and common
mode return losses – performed
using a Keysight time
domain reflectometer (TDR)
or vector network analyzer
(VNA)
Multi-level signaling systems
are particularly susceptible to
noise, so Keysight’s V-Series,
Z-Series and S-Series offer the
industry’s lowest noise floors for
wide-bandwidth, real-time oscilloscopes.
For example, when
using the 63 GHz Z-Series oscilloscope,
designers can achieve
accurate analysis of electrical
PAM-4 signals to 32 GBaud and
beyond. Additionally, engineers
can perform offline analysis on
stored PAM-4 signals using
the N8900A Infiniium Offline
oscilloscope analysis software
installed on a PC.
The 86100D DCA-X combines
low-noise, high-bandwidth
receivers with an acquisition
system that is particularly well
suited for accurate characterization
of PAM signals. The
N1085A’s measurement capabilities
are supported by a variety
of DCA plug-in modules such
as the 86108B 50-GHz precision
waveform analyzer module,
the N1045A 60-GHz module, or
the N1055A 50-GHz TDR/TDT
module. Engineers can use the
N1045A and N1055A modules
to analyze up to 16 PAM-4 channels
simultaneously.
■ Keysight Technologies
www.keysight.com
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