The BK Precision RFP3018 RF Peak Power Sensor, 50 MHz to 18 GHz, 70 MHz to 350 kHz Video Bandwidth utilizes real-time processing and enhanced hardware triggering to capture even the most elusive signals. The RFP3000 Series specifications are impressive, offering best in class video bandwidth, rise times and time resolution. The sensors, in combination with the included Power Analyzer software, measure pulsed, bursted, and modulated signals used in commercial and military radar, electronic warfare (EW), wireless communications (e.g., LTE, LTE-A, and 5G), consumer electronics (WLAN and WiFi 6), as well as education and research applications. The RFP3018 is powered by the host computer's USB port. The Power Analyzer software takes full advantage of the sensor's capabilities to perform peak power measurements in real-time and can be installed on additional workstations as needed.

Real-Time Power Processing dramatically reduces the total cycle time for acquiring and processing power measurement samples. By combining a dedicated acquisition engine, hardware trigger, integrated sample buffer, and a real-time optimized parallel processing architecture, Real-Time Power Processing performs most of the sweep processing steps simultaneously, beginning immediately after the trigger instead of waiting for the end of the acquisition cycle. The advantages of the Real-Time Power Processing technique are shown in Figure 1a. Key processing steps take place in parallel and keep pace with the signal acquisition. With no added computational overhead to prolong the sweep cycle, the sample buffer cannot overflow. As a result, there is no need to halt acquisition for trace processing. This means gap-free signal acquisition virtually guarantees that intermittent signal phenomena such as transients, dropouts, or interference will be reliably captured and analyzed, shown in Figure 1b. These sorts of events are most often missed by conventional power meters due to the acquisition gaps while processing takes place.

The RFP3018 features 100 ps time base resolution and with an acquisition rate up to 100 MSPS, can provide 50 points per division with a time base range as low as 5 ns / division. This enables users to see meaningful waveform information (Figure 2a) missed by alternative power analyzers (Figure 2b). In addition, the instrument's superior time management enables several other advantages. Pulse widths as narrow as 10 ns can be captured and characterized with outstanding trigger stability (< 100 ps jitter, rms).

Video bandwidth (VBW) describes the ability of a power sensor to track peak (envelope) power. Insufficient VBW will result in errant envelope and average power measurements. The RFP3018 offers the widest video bandwidth (195 MHz) making it ideal for measuring 80 MHz, 100 MHz, and 160 MHz channels.

Series Measurement Buffer mode is a remote control function that works in conjunction with Real-Time Power Processing to provide only the relevant burst or pulse information, eliminating the need to download and post-process large sample buffers. As a result, users can collect and analyze measurements from a virtually unlimited number of consecutive pulses or events. A wide variety of parameters can be calculated and plotted, such as duty cycle, pulse repetition rate, pulse width variation, and pulse jitter. In addition, anomalies, such as dropouts, can be identified.

Crest factor, or peak-to-average power ratio, is an important measurement for characterizing device-under-test (DUT) performance, such as amplifier linearity. With the Power Analyzer software package, users can utilize the complementary cumulative distribution function (CCDF) to assess the probability of various crest factor values to gain further insight into DUT performance. The CCDF and other statistical values are determined from a very large population of power samples captured at a 100 MSPS acquisition rate on all channels simultaneously.