USB-SA44B Spectrum Analyzer User Manual
Contents
1. or use of this material This Test Equipment Plus product has a warranty against defects in material and workmanship for a period of one year from date of shipment During the warranty period Test Equipment Plus will at its option either repair or replace products that prove to be defective 1 2 WARRANTY SERVICE For warranty service or repair this product must be returned to Test Equipment Plus The Buyer shall pay shipping charges to Test Equipment Plus and Test Equipment Plus shall pay UPS Ground or equivalent shipping charges to return the product to the Buyer However the Buyer shall pay all shipping charges duties and taxes to and from Test Equipment Plus for products returned from another country 7 2 1 Limitation of Warranty The foregoing warranty shall not apply to defects resulting from improper use by the Buyer Buyer supplied software or interfacing unauthorized modification or misuse operation outside of the environmental specifications for the product No other warranty is expressed or implied Test Equipment Plus specifically disclaims the implied warranties or merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose 12 Si Warranty and Disclaimer Warranty Service 7 2 2 Exclusive Remedies The remedies provided herein are the Buyer s sole and exclusive remedies Test Equipment Plus shall not be liable for any direct indirect special incidental or consequential damages whether based on contract tort or any2. then select external reference in the Spike software 2 3 6 Using Sync Out Trigger In A 3 3V CMOS output may be used to synchronize the USB SA44B to the TG44A or TG124A tracking generator Legacy software allowed some additional triggering options available for a very limited range of applications but these have been removed to enhance the stability of our new platform Consult the appropriate manual for additional details 2 3 Measuring Low Level Signals To measure low level signals simply set your reference level to 40 dBm or lower This internally selects the highest sensitivity settings Video averaging may be required for a stable amplitude reading 2 3 8 Measurements near DANL The amplitude displayed is the sum of all energy present in the IF This includes the signal as well as noise and residual responses Measurements of signals less than 10 dB above the noise floor will have a measurable amplitude error due to the addition of noise To compensate for this subtract the amplitude with no signal present the noise in linear power units from the amplitude with signal present to calculate the signal level Please note that the measurement uncertainty will increase from this process 3 Theory of Operation Learn about the internal blocks that make up the Signal Hound SS Theory of Operation Limitations of the Signal Hound The Signal Hound is built around a narrow band IF to bits receiver with a maximum bandwidth of 25
3. 0 KHz It receives up to 2 Megabytes of I Q data each second which it processes into a trace To bring you a low cost compact spectrum analyzer we used high level RF integrated circuits The block diagram below illustrates the major elements of the design Image rejection is accomplished by mixing high side and low side sometimes with separate IF frequencies then masking together the results MIXERS amp ires IFs RF Preamplifier RC RF IN sn s P m IF to bits USB2 0 0 15 dB DIVIDER IC E ET x E FN Deinen Figure 5 Simplified Block Diagram 3 1 1 Operating Modes e Q streaming This is used for real time mode frequency domain and zero span mode time domain In this mode the USB SA44B continuously mixes a fixed LO frequency with the RF input and streams the data to the PC or laptop for processing e Narrowband Sweep This mode is used for spans of 200 kHz or less In this mode a fixed predetermined amount of l Q data is captured at two distinct combinations of LO and IF frequencies then combined into a single trace for display There are minimal restrictions on RBW e Midrange Sweep For spans of 201 kHz to 99 MHz with a start frequency above 16 MHz the firmware captures between 256 and 65 536 I Q samples at each 200 kHz step allowing RBW VBW settings of 30 Hz to 250 kHz e Wide Sweep For all other spans the f
4. 2 5 MHz RBW accuracy not specified and is available only in legacy software 6 2 AMPLITUDE RBW lt 100KHZ Range 1dB Gain Compression Displayed Average Noise Level Absolute Accuracy Reference level x0 dBm Absolute Accuracy 0 dBm Reference level x 10 dBm 1dB Gain Compression to Displayed Average Noise Level DANL attenuator set to 15dB preamp off 16dBm Typical 1Hz to 150MHz 100 kHz to 150 MHz Option 3 19dBm Typical 150MHz to 4 4GHz OdB input attenuation 1Hz RBW Frequency RF Preamp Off RF Preamp On 10Hz 124 dBm NA 100Hz to 10KHz 130 dBm NA 10KHz to 500KHz 142 dBm NA 500KHz to 10MHz 142 dBm 153 dBm 10MHz to 100MHz 148 dBm 161 dBm 100MHz to 1GHz 144 dBm 158 dBm 1GHz to 2 6GHz 139 dBm 151 dBm 2 6GHz to 3 3GHz 135 dBm 151 dBm 3 3GHz to 4 4GHz 128 dBm 134 dBm Note 1 Option 3 is unspecified below 100 kHz 1 5dB 2 0dB Specifications sweep Relative Accuracy Reference level x0 dBm Maximum Safe Input Level preamp off 15 dB atten DC Volts Residual Responses Input terminated 3100 KHz span 0 dB atten preamp on Spurious Responses lt 100 KHz span CW tone input 6 3 SWEEP Zero Span Sweep Time 0 1 ms to 10 sec Maximum sample rate Sweep Trigger External Trigger FM Accuracy AM Accuracy Synchronous Level Detector 15 KHz IF BW timebases locked 0 25 dB 20dBm lt 0 2V absolute ma
5. SIGNAL HOUND 2 3 1 RBW Limitations The maximum resolution bandwidth RBW is 250 kHz and the minimum is 0 1 Hz To measure wider bandwidths the channel power utility must be used See the Spike software manual for additional information A traditional 1 3 10 RBW sequence is used by default but any RBW up to 250 kHz may be selected 2 3 2 IF Feed Through Intermediate frequencies of 2 9 MHz and 10 7 MHz are used for all frequencies An RF input signal near these frequencies may generate spurious responses and degrade the performance of the image rejection algorithm 2 3 3 LO Leakage A Local Oscillator signal may be observed at the RF input port often found 10 7 MHz above the RF frequency being scanned Typically this level will not interfere with your measurements If you are connecting to an antenna set your reference level to 30 dBm to activate the preamplifier to minimize LO leakage SS Theory of Operation Limitations of the Signal Hound 2 3 4 Sweep Time Sweep Time may only be set in zero span mode In all other modes the minimum sweep time which satisfies your RBW VBW and span settings will be used 2 3 5 Using an External Timebase An external 10 MHz timebase my be used to improve the accuracy of frequency measurements The level of the external timebase must be gt 0 dBm 13 dBm is recommended to achieve optimal phase noise performance To use simply connect the timebase to the Ext Ref In after connecting the USB
6. To remedy this open your computer s Control Panel and change your Power Options setting to High Performance 3 Your Signal Hound doesn t find a signal e Isit a swept or transient signal a pulse or a rapidly modulated signal If so and you know the frequency of the signal set up for a 200 KHz span or less then turn spur reject off This disables the image rejection algorithm which will reject data if it has moved or disappeared when the image is checked it also allows the image frequency through which SS Calibration and Adjustment Frequency is 21 4 MHz above the CENTER FREQ You may also try MAX HOLD to capture transient signals 4 Your phase noise seems too high You may consider using a low phase noise external reference or contacting us about lower phase noise options Be aware that the Signal Hound phase noise is noticably higher than a YIG based spectrum analyzer especially at higher frequencies 5 You receive a specific error code Error 1 Your Signal hound was not found on a USB port Plug in your Signal Hound if it isn t already If it is already plugged in unplug it reboot re install the USB driver and or try a different USB port Error 2 6 A USB communications error occurred If multiple errors occur close out of the software unplug the Signal Hound wait 5 seconds plug it back in and try again If you get a recurring error please make a note of the error number and e mail or call tech support 6 Gen
7. USB SA44B Spectrum Analyzer User Manual Signal Hound USB SA44B User Manual O 2015 Signal Hound Inc 35707 NE 86th Ave La Center WA 98629 USA Phone 360 263 5006 Fax 360 263 5007 Contents 1 Preparing TOR Us E 1 E ARAN 1 T2 SoftwarelnstallatlOm tesi Li ii Liu eade idad dd dl dida didas 1 2 Getting Started tecto tede epe dedu de e er t de rte e dn rent 2 2 1 FIONL amp Rear A A A A 2 2 2 Measurement Capabilities 5 eie pie 3 22 1 Image and Spur Rejection in Swept Mode 3 222 Real Time Mode inner 3 LILIA MOO E ii E is 4 224 Attenuator Preamplifier Intermediate Frequency and Gain and ADC Clock Settings 4 2 3 Limitations of the Signal Hound teet tette 4 Zo JHBW IPMIBTIOHS re D RARE TERREA BREAD E RA n RR EVA TER E PDA 4 23 2 IF Feed Through nn 4 2I ILOLE AOC re ae 4 23 4 Sweep THC RR 5 239 Using an External TImebase standi it 5 256 USING SYNC QULA THOGErTI i bt dirette t ret ie 5 294 Measuring LOW Level SIQUalS uis tutte ted eate eu teet ds 5 2306 Measurements near DAN E d o wd edidi dtd deed tede 5 3 Theory of Operation ienien eanne n n eaa ia ad nasii iari iaia 5 341 1 Operating Modes x Rd a tt t ea 6 3 1 2 Reducing Spurious and Residual Responses 6 3 1 3 IF to Bits RECE VEF essei tette retta teret th tete tette raa tates sea serata asa so oa so oa 7 3 1 4 IF and RBW Selection ras 7 4 Tro bleshootlnig O POP RI DO REG OO trait ave da Ee re Era pra iai a re Red EE FE Da a 7 5 Calibration and Adj
8. a TTL CMOS trigger sync in some legacy modes The Signal Hound software controls the function of this BNC It defaults to unused no output Getting Started Measurement Capabilities 2 2 MEASUREMENT CAPABILITIES The Signal Hound is capable of making a wide range of measurements with resolution bandwidths from less than 1 Hz to 250 kHz The internal Q demodulator captures up to 2 Megabytes of information each second with a hardware limited bandwidth of 250 KHz Sweeps with spans greater than this are actually a combination of many smaller sweeps mathematically combined to reject image and spurious responses 2 2 1 Image and Spur Rejection in Swept Mode The USB SA44B does not have hardware based image rejection instead relying on a software algorithm to reject image responses The algorithm mixes the incoming RF with two distinct local oscillator frequencies typically spaced by 21 4 MHz and up to 100 milliseconds and rejects responses not present in both This algorithm has some limitations 1 Asignal must be present for both captures to be displayed Pulsed or swept signals which do not stay at any given frequency for this duration will be rejected as potential image or spurious responses 2 An analog modulation envelope may be clipped since certain frequency components of the modulation envelope may not be present at both times Most digital modulation tends to spread energy evenly across its bandwidth and is relatively i
9. ce Recommended calibration interval is 1 year at 20 C to 25 C 6 8 ADJUSTMENTS Factory adjustment software shall be used to generate new calibration constants when USB SA44B will not pass calibration Temperature correction data is generated only at time of manufacture 6 9 OPTIONAL ACCESSORIES 1 20dB Fixed Attenuator Mini Circuits Part VAT 20 2 DC Block Mini Circuits Part BLK 89 3 SMA m to BNC f Adapter Mini Circuits part SM BF50 4 3GHz RF Probe p n P 20A made by Auburn Technology www auburntec com 11 Si Warranty and Disclaimer Fcc compliance 6 10 FCC COMPLIANCE This device is exempt from FCC Certification under 47 CFR Part 15 103 c 6 11 CE COMPLIANCE This device complies with the Class B limits of CISPR 11 and all relevant requirements of EN 61326 1 2006 7 Warranty and Disclaimer 2015 Signal Hound All rights reserved Reproduction adaptation or translation without prior written permission is prohibited except as allowed under the copyright laws 7 1 WARRANTY The information contained in this manual is subject to change without notice Test Equipment Plus makes no warranty of any kind with regard to this material including but not limited to the implied warranties or merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose Test Equipment Plus shall not be liable for errors contained herein or for incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing performance
10. eral Advice to avoid problems e Use a DC block and limiter to protect your Signal Hound from DC voltages ESD and excess RF power This is especially important when connecting to antrennas or unknown signals e Do not overpower the Signal Hound 5 Calibration and Adjustment Contact Test Equipment Plus for more information regarding calibration services or our free calibration software and required equipment 6 Specifications Unless otherwise stated specifications are valid for an ambient temperature range of 0 to 70 C or 40 to 85 C for option 1 image rejection on amplitude of signal applied less than the reference level 6 1 FREQUENCY Frequency Range 1 Hz to 4 4 GHz Standard 100 kHz to 4 4 GHz AC coupled Option 3 Span Modes Center Frequency Span or Start Stop Frequencies Maximum Span 4 4 GHz Minimum Span 10 Hz or Zero Span Specifications Amplitude RBW lt 100KHz Internal Frequency Reference Accuracy Frequency Readout Accuracy Marker Accuracy Resolution Bandwidth Spectral Purity 1 ppm Note For greater frequency accuracy connect to external 10 MHz timebase 0 to 20 dBm reference error 1 sample reference error 1 sample 0 1Hz to 250KHz and 5MHz Residual FM 3KHz Audio LPF 15 KHz IF BW 0 1 Hz 4 Hz GHz typical RMS FM e g 2 GHz RF would have 8 1 Hz RMS FM Increasing IF BW increases residual FM Note 1 1 sample represents approximately 4096 of the selected RBW Note
11. irmware captures 256 1 Q samples at each 200 kHz step meaning RBW and VBW must be 6 5 kHz or higher 3 1 2 Reducing Spurious and Residual Responses Certain RF frequencies may produce small spurious and or residual responses To verify a displayed signal center it and step the span from 1 MHz down to 100 KHz If it is not present in both spans it was likely a spurious mixing artifact or a harmonic from a system clock To avoid known residual responses at multiples of the primary system clocks a secondary clock frequency is selected for some frequencies when span is 200 KHz or less The mixers can typically operate with up to 0 dBm input but keeping the input level 25 dBm or lower will greatly improve linearity reducing harmonic and spurious mixing products You can accomplish this in software by setting your reference level 15 20 dB above your actual input level 1 Troubleshooting Limitations of the Signal Hound 3 1 3 IF to Bits Receiver The IF to bits receiver has three gain ranges The gain range will be automatically selected based on attenuator settings and reference level to avoid IF ADC compression which will greatly distort the data The software should warn you if compression is occurring If this happens increase your reference level 3 1 4 IF and RBW Selection The 1 Q data comes in over USB and is processed using an FFT with a custom Flat Top window based on the selected RBW Software and firmware limitations only allo
12. l Hound USB SA44B 1 2 SOFTWARE INSTALLATION The Signal Hound is operated from a Windows based PC using our Spike application software The Signal Hound software and drivers are compatible with Windows 7 and Windows 8 64 bit operating systems You must have a computer with at least 500 MB of free disk space 4 GB of RAM and USB 2 0 An Intel Core i3 or equivalent is recommended For serial numbers below 21000000 an internet connection is required the first time you launch the software See the Spike software manual for additional installation instructions and software features gt Getting Started Front amp Rear Panels Legacy software is available for 32 bit operating systems Contact support signalhound com for further information 2 Getting Started Learn about the features of your USB SA44B Signal Hound Spectrum Analyzer 2 1 FRONT amp REAR PANELS The front panel includes a 500 SMA RF input Do not exceed 20 dBm or damage may occur A READY BUSY LED flashes orange each time a command from the computer is processed The rear panel has three connectors 1 10 MHz Reference input automatically detected after each sweep completes Use a clean 10 MHz reference with gt 0 dBm level 13 dBm is recommended 2 A USB type B connector Connect to your PC using the included USB cable 3 A multi purpose BNC connector This may be used as a Self Test Signal output a Tracking Generator Sync signal or
13. mmune from this effect 3 Two RF input signals spaced by 42 8 MHz will generate a spurious response halfway between the two RF input signals This spurious response will not be present when a 200 kHz span is selected Broadband signals which exceed 42 MHz cannot be accurately measured with the USB SA4AB because of this effect Disabling image rejection will allow pulsed and swept signals to be displayed and will not clip modulation but image and spurious responses may be a major problem for some measurements If your application requires hardware based image rejection consider our BB60C Wide sweeps of strong signals especially at frequencies above 1 GHz may have noticeable fractional N spurs To avoid these spurs set your span to 200 kHz or less In this narrowband mode the incoming signal is mixed using two distinct local oscillator frequencies with different frac N modulus settings to two distinct intermediate frequencies such that fractional N spurs are completely masked out 2 2 2 Real Time Mode The USB SA44B can continuously stream up to 250 kHz of spectrum to the Spike software running on your PC or laptop Real time mode displays this stream of data in the frequency domain For modulated signals not exceeding 250 kHz bandwidth real time mode is recommended as it will capture and display the modulation envelope using overlapping FFTs showing you an accurate representation of the modulation envelope All modulation types i
14. ncluding pulse and short digital RF SS Getting Started Limitations of the Signal Hound packets will be displayed accurately in this mode Other modes will work but modulation details may be masked out by the image rejection algorithm and pulses and short packets may be missed entirely Image rejection is not available in this mode therefore the image frequency 21 4 MHz above the signal will not be suppressed and spurious responses may be present 2 2 3 Zero Span Mode For modulated signals not exceeding 250 kHz bandwidth time domain amplitude frequency and phase information as well as several modulation measurements are available in Zero Span mode See the Spike manual for additional information Image rejection is not available in this mode therefore the image frequency 21 4 MHz above the signal will not be suppressed and spurious responses may be present 2 2 4 Attenuator Preamplifier Intermediate Frequency and Gain and ADC Clock Settings The Signal Hound switches between two intermediate frequencies four attenuator settings two preamplifier settings two ADC clock frequencies and three IF gain settings when measuring signals and performing image suppression Unless you explicitly disable the automatic settings the best settings for your reference level center frequency and span will be automatically selected Simply select a reference level that is a few dB above the input signal level 2 3 LIMITATIONS OF THE
15. other legal theory 1 2 3 Certification Test Equipment Plus certifies that at the time of shipment this product conformed to its published specifications 1 2 4 Credit Notice Windows and Excel are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries 13
16. ustment iii 8 6 Specifications trad EDI ILU e E I 8 D FR QUENTE 8 6 2 Amplitude RBW lt OOKEZ airada tiara 9 O 10 AVES 10 A i E RGEHERUR RUE EHE ERU RE UE URUEEER RORIS AS 11 O ENVIO MEN Ra ED EDS 11 6 7 Calibration EET Al 9 8 AdLUSIINENLS Ait acid de de ae ee ie a ee 11 6 9 Optional Accessories een 11 6 10 FCC Compliance idees 12 BI SECOND LANGE ssa MM I 12 T Warranty and Disclaimer eni i e HER IRR kin 12 KEIRA EE EUM 12 IDA IA 12 52 1 Limitation OF WANA cs tt tud a a TE 12 7 22 EXCIUSIVE Bemegles 3000000 a dte teer te bored e te taf fe teen 13 ITO in 13 LAA COMEN OC ao e ER d re D t aD 13 SS Preparing for Use initial inspection 1 Preparing for Use Unpacking your Signal Hound and Installing Software The Signal Hound USB SA44B is a USB based 1 Hz to 4 4 GHz economy spectrum analyzer and measuring receiver with an RF preamplifier Using recent innovations in RF technology the Signal Hound has the sensitivity accuracy and dynamic range you d expect in a unit many times its cost The Signal Hound is powered from the USB cable eliminating the need for a separate power supply Measuring less than 8 inches long and weighing only ten ounces the Signal Hound can be used virtually anywhere 1 1 INITIAL INSPECTION Check your package for shipping damage before opening Your box should contain a USB cable a CD ROM and a Signa
17. w certain very low or very high RBWS for certain spans to keep sweep speed and trace size reasonable For example an RBW of less than 30 Hz is only allowed for spans of 200 kHz or less and the minimum RBW for spans of 100 MHz or more is 6 5 kHz See the Spike manual for additional information The available RBWs are a function of the span since very large RBWs with a small span would result in a trace with only a few data points and a blocky appearance and very small RBWs with a large span would result in a large data set that would be difficult to manage and process 4 Troubleshooting If you experience a problem with your Signal Hound please try these troubleshooting techniques before contacting us 1 Your Signal Hound Is Not Sweeping Properly e Try this first Close the Spike software Unplug the USB cable and any external 10 MHz or trigger cables from the Signal Hound and wait 5 seconds Plug the USB cable back in Check that both ends of the USB cable are firmly seated and the Signal Hound LED is green Launch the Spike Software Try your sweep again e Still not working Contact technical support at http www signalhound com 2 Your Signal Hound LED is off e Make sure the USB cable is connected at both ends your PC is on and the USB drivers are installed properly e Is your PC or laptop configured in low power mode The Signal Hound is a high powered USB device and may be shut down in some power saving configurations
18. ximum 16VDC option 3 lt 80 dBm Note 1 Known residual responses at multiples of 10 MHz 80 dBm typical Typical Maximum LO Feedthrough preamp on attenuator set to 15 dB 1Hz to 500KHz 0 dBm 500KHz to 1GHz 57 dBm 1GHz to 2 3GHz 47dBm 2 3GHz to 2 6GHz 40 dBm 2 6GHz to 3 0GHz 27 dBm 3 0GHz to 4 4GHz 35 dBm RF Preamp Off and Internal input Attenuator on any setting 0 1 All other sweeps times are estimates reported after sweep completes 486K sec free run single video external 3 3V CMOS TTL input 6 4 MEASURING RECEIVER 1 typical 1 typical 100 KHz to 1 GHz 0 dBm to 125 dBm after 10 min warmup 0 25dB 1 GHz to 4 4 GHz 0 dBm to 115 dBm after 10 min warmup 0 25dB 10 NI Specifications Inputs and Outputs Average Level Detector 15 KHz 100 KHz to 4 4 GHz 0 dBm to 70 dBm after 10 min warmup IF BW 0 25dB Maximum IF Bandwidth 240 KHz Audio Filters Low Pass Digital Windowed Sinc selectable cutoff Band Pass Available in version 2 xx legacy software only Maximum sample rate 486K sec 6 5 INPUTS AND OUTPUTS BNC External Timebase 10 MHz input BNC Shared e Self Test Output e SYNC Out e Sweep Trigger In legacy software only SMA RF Input 6 6 ENVIRONMENT Operating Temperature 0 to 70 C std 40 to 85 C option 1 6 CALIBRATION Test with factory calibration software to verify that USB SA44B is operating within toleran
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