R. A. Wood Associates is demonstrating our RFSpecTest software product at MTT Symposium in Philadelphia, PA during June 10-12, 2003. RFSpecTest is a software suite that controls test equipment to perform computer automated testing of RF components. The software performs many common RF measurements for various kinds of RF components. The software was developed using National Instruments LabVIEW. The test station at MTTS contains 1 GPIB controlled signal generator for generating the RF test signals (up to 3 can be added), and the NI 5660 spectrum analyzer for the measurement device (see figure below). The NI 5660 is a new PXI-based spectrum analyzer recently released by National Instruments. A built in calibration routine uses an RF power meter to calibrate RF cabling losses at the input and output of the Device Under Test (DUT). The calibration scheme allows measurements to be made with accuracies on the order of tenths of a dB.

The test software contains on-screen user interfaces for setting up the test parameters for the various RF measurements. The flexibility is built in for technicians and engineers to start testing and analyzing RF components right away. The user interfaces can be automated for faster production testing. Measurements can be stored to text based data files for further analysis or database entry.

R. A. Wood Associates is a company specializing in RF and Microwave system analysis, design, and testing. Its members have been developing computer automated test software since the early 1980’s.

In our RF consulting experiences, we see many companies performing manual RF testing, or spending many man-hours recording and analyzing measured data. We wanted to create a program that was general enough to test a variety of RF components, and flexible enough to use without any training. Companies can start using this software right away to realize productivity improvements. We believe this is the first of its kind in the industry”, states Bob Wood, the company president.