R. A. Wood Associates QuickNews

New Equalizer Designs added to our Product Line

We've released some new equalizer designs in the past few months: Part Number Start Freq (GHz) Stop Freq (GHz) Full Band Slope REQ-M02-F0.5-18.0-S10.5 0.5 18.0 10.5 REQ-M02-F0.5-18.0-S9.0 0.5 18.0 9.0 REQ-M02-F0.5-18.0-S17.5 0.5 18.0 17.5 REQ-M02-F1.0-8.0-S3.0 1.0 8.0 3.0 REQ-M02-F1.0-8.0-S2.0 1.0 8.0 2.0 REQ-M02-F8.0-18.0-S3.0 8.0 18.0 3.0 REQ-M02-F0.1-1.0-S38.0 0.1 1.0 38.0 REQ-M02-F0.1-1.0-S15 0.1 1.0 15.0 For more information and test results, visit or "Equalizers on Demand" WWW page. If you don't see a design that fits your needs, please call us and we'll try to develop a design that meets your requirements. Thanks for all your support, equalizer users!

Test Station Delivered to NAVSEA NSWC

We delivered a Test Station to NAVSEA Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) in Crane, Indiana. The Test Station contains many state of the art features, including: The latest Agilent Network Analyzer (PNA-X Series) A 10-port Extension for measuring multi-port S-parameters An R. A. Wood Associates custom-designed RF Load Box/Chassis for testing high power RF devices Rack mount conputer, keyboard, and monitor with digital I/O, GPIB interfaces A PXI chassis with fiber optic interface, digital I/O, serial interfaces, temperature monitors, and GPIB interfaces LabVIEW Software utilities to support setting up the Network Analyzer, retrieving S-parameters from the Network Analyzer, controlling the RF Load Box, and controlling other measurement equipment in the Test Station This was a very exciting project, and we really enjoyed working with our customer on this program. The complete project was delivered within 7 months of the order being placed. Great job everybody!

mmW Equalizers Designed and Built for our Customer

One of our customers had a need for a mmW equalizer to help offset a 7 dB negative slope across a 26.0 to 40.0 GHz band. We looked far and wide to see if there were any available components out there in the industry that we could buy as an off-the-shelf part, or have someone develop for us. We could not find any available parts. So we took on the task ourselves to design a mmW equalizer with a 7 dB positive gain slope. This is just another example of how we can break new ground to come up with designs that are needed by our customers when they are not otherwise available. The equalizer was installed in the system, and the 7 dB negative slope was flattened out. See before and after pictures below. Another exciting success story!
System RF Path Gain before equalization (26-40 GHz):	System RF Path Gain after equalization (26-40 GHz):

Happy Holidays from all of us at R. A. Wood Associates!

We would like to thank all our customers and clients for allowing us to help them out over the past year. We wish each of you a wonderful holiday season, and a prosperous and healthy New Year! From all of us at R. A. Wood Associates.

Sean, Bob, Marge, Nancy, Al, Amelia, Lorraine, Pat, Dave, Rusty, and Ray (hiding).

LB Modules SN #10 and 11 Ready for Delivery!

Our 10th and 11th LB RF modules, containing our Extreme BW RF amplifiers, have been built, and tested, ready for delivery to our customer. These modules will be used in our customer's systems, which will be installed on board Navy vessels.

ESSU SN3 Delivered

We've delivered the third Electronics Support Switching Uint (ESSU) for one of our customers (ahead of schedule!). This was another set of hardware slated to to be installed on a Navy Vessel. The ESSU is shown here with the cover removed, looking from the back. All RF components are mounted on both sides of a center RF plate. Shown are RF amplfiers, equalizers, attenuators, RF switches, cabling, FPGA card, and rear connectors (21 RF connectors, 12 video/75 ohm connectors, Audio, Power). For additional information, please visit our ESSU information page.

R. A. Wood Associates awarded contract from NSWC Crane Division

R. A. Wood Associates has been awarded a contract from Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Crane Division. The contract involves designing and delivering an automated test rack consisting of: A 40U rack with rack mount PC, work table, LCD monitor, GPIB controller cards, A state of the art Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) with 10 port extension A PXI chassis with PXI cards providing thermocouple temperature measurement, serial ports, 2 X 96 digital I/O signals A custom designed RF Load Box for testing up to eight transmitter/receiver modules, capable of providing 50 Watts of RF power Custom designed software for controlling the Load Box and the VNA equipment We are fortunate to be able to work with Viewpoint Systems on this contract. This contract was won on a competitive bid, and our solution was selected out of many other submissions. We are very excited about the opportunity to work with NSWC Crane Division!

RF Receiver Simuator SN4 Delivered

We've delivered our fourth RF Receiver Simulator, and our 6th of a family of Receiver Simulator products. The simulators are designed to represent the RF front end (noise figure, gain compression point, and intercept point) of a complex EW system, to allow testing, verification and validation of the EW system back end, without requiring the expensive front end components. If you have a need for one of these types of products, please contact us.

Extreme BW RF Amplifier extended to 3 GHz for Direct Laser Modulation Application

Average Gain: 16.31 dB Slope: 0.53 dB P-P Flatness: 0.83 dB Min Gain(Low Freq): 15.30 dB Max Input Return Loss: -13.02 dB Max Output Return Loss: -9.99 dB Average 1 dB Output Comp Point: 20.7 dBm Min 1dB Output Comp Point: 19.97 dBm Noise Figure at Low Freq: ~12.8 dB Noise Figure at High Freq: ~ 5.77 dB

More information is available from our Extreme BW RF Amplifier page. Let us know if you are interested in this product line! Bob Wood.

RF Receiver Simulator Delivered

We've delivered another RF Receiver simulator to one of our customers. This unit simulates the RF front end characterisitcs (noise figure, gain, dynamic range) of an EW system, so the customer can connect it to their back end system and validate full system end to end performance (system sensitivity, etc), without requiring the expensive front end components. Frequency coverage goes from 10 MHz to 40 GHz on this unit. If you have a need for one of these types of products, please contact us.

Automated RF/Microwave Test Stations designed and delivered

Developed automated test software for a complex RF/digital board providing RF receive, transmit, and digital signal processing functions Modified/retrofitted 12 automated test stations to test this complex RF/digital board Developed automated test software to test a LRU chassis, including point to point wiring and DC power supply checks Modified/retrofitted 2 automated test stations to test the LRU chassis Developed automated test software for a high frequency radar receiver/transmitter board, including a waveguide interface Modified/retrofitted 1 automated test station to test the high frequency radar receiver/transmitter board Developed automated test software for an IF frequency radar receiver/transmitter board Modified/retrofitted 1 automated test station to test the IF frequency radar receiver/transmitter board

RF and Wireless Courses set up for 2009

We've finally set up our courses for 2009. We appreciate the patience people have shown while we were setting up this schedule. A quick summary of the courses and locations:

• Introductory RF and Microwaves, presented by Bob Wood
• RF Power Amplifiers, Classes A-S, presented by Nathan Sokal
• RF and Microwave Receiver Design, presented by Bob Wood

The courses will be presented in:

• Baltimore, MD in May 2009
• Syracuse, NY in September 2009
• Philadelphia PA in November 2009

More information can be found at http://www.rawood.com/seminars. We hope to meet you at one of these courses! Thanks again for your patience.
Bob Wood

LB RF Amplifier Modules delivered

Using our Extreme BW RF amplifiers, we designed, built, and tested 7 LB RF amplifier modules for one of our customers. Our customer's original vendor failed to deliver their amplifier products and meet the requirements. So we stepped in and helped them meet their delivery schedules. These modules were made to "drop in" to our customer's modules. These modules will be used in our customer's systems, which will be installed on board Navy vessels. A full set of test data was provided for each LB RF Amplifier Module delivered. Our automated RF test software (RFSpecTest and Painless Extraction) helped to quickly capture the test results and create the test reports.

DF Antenna Assembly, designed and built by R. A. Wood Associates

Another great effort resulting in a great potential product!

R. A. Wood Associates designed and built a Direction Finding (DF) Antenna Assembly for one of our customers. The Assembly was designed, built, tested, and delivered in less than 6 months. The requirement was to develop an antenna assembly that could be used as a front end in front of a pair of COTS (Commercial Off the Shelf) receiver boards. The DF Antenna Assembly provided the capability to supply Direction Finding (DF) for incoming signals or emitters. The DF Antenna Assembly included: Capability to provide amplitude and phase DF between antenna pairs 360 degree angular coverage Low cost universal design (can be used with many different receivers) Low noise figure RF front end (~3.5-4.0 dB) Calibration injection to calibrate receiver amplitude and phase Wide frequency coverage (500 MHz to 3 GHz) High dynamic range Digital Compass for DF Antenna Assembly pointing information RF switches controlled by an Ethernet interface More information is available from our DF Antenna Assembly www page

Equalizer Designs now extended up to 18 GHz

Hello Everybody

We've enhanced our portfolio of equalizer designs with new high frequency equalizers, with low losses all the way up to 18 GHz!

We also now have a smaller package design (M02 package).

We can now offer low loss, high linearity equalizers over the following frequency bands:

5 KHz to 2.0 GHz 0.5 to 8.0 GHz 1.0 to 8.0 GHz 1.0 to 2.0 GHz 2.0 to 4.0 GHz 4.0 to 8.0 GHz 4.5 to 12.5 GHz 4.0 to 18.0 GHz 8.0 to 18.0 GHz

Electronics Support Switching Unit (ESSU) designed, built, and tested by R. A. Wood Associates

R. A. Wood Associates designed, built, tested, and delivered 2 Electronics Support Switching Units (ESSU) to one of our customers. This was another set of hardware slated to to be installed on a Navy Vessel. The ESSU was designed to be installed between the front end (Antennas, RF amplification switching, filtering) and back end (RF processing) of a complex RF/Microwave system. The purpose of the ESSU was to allow a second front end (RF Subsystem 2) to be switched into the same back end, to make use of the RF signal processing in the back end. Some of the major components in the ESSU are as follows: Wideband RF/Microwave amplifiers Our Extreme BW RF amplifier was used in this design for the low frequency, wide bandwidth RF path Equalizers and attenuators to align the RF paths Some vendor purchased equalizers were used R. A. Wood Associates equalizers were also used where vendor equalizers were not available Terminated mechanical RF switches (50 ohms) Terminated mechanical RF switches (75 ohms) HDRFI external RF interface to save RF connector space DC power conditioning FPGA card to control switches and provide Built-in-test (BIT) status LED displays for BIT and switching status Custom designed audio switching board

Extreme BW RF Amplifiers

We've taken a challenge and come out on top again! We've developed an Extreme BW RF Amplifier, providing ~22 dB gain, and high dynamic range (~36 dBm Third Order Output Intercept Point) over the frequency band of 5 KHz to 2 GHz. An integrated RF package of 1.9" L X 1.3" W X 0.4" H was developed for the Extreme BW RF Amplifier and also included: DC filter to suppress power supply ripple and noise An input Equalizer where you can specify the full band slope desired An output Resistive Power Divider for providing 2 equal RF outputs The input Equalizer and output Power Divider can be "zeroed out" if not needed. The input Equalizer can be used to compensate for the amplifier slope and/or passive loss slopes. We can provide a variety of RF slopes in the input Equalizer. More information is available from our Extreme BW RF Amplifier page. Let us know if you are interested in this product line! Bob Wood.

JBU RF Plate Assemblies designed and delivered for Naval Application

R. A. Wood Associates designed, built and tested and delivered 2 "JBU RF PLate" Assemblies. These RF assemblies were used to provide wideband gain, equalization, and Built-in-test (BIT) injection between two very long RF cable runs (between an Antenna Assembly and below decks receivers). The gain and equalization was needed to preserve the RF path noise figure and dynamic range performance through the long cable run. The exciting part for us is that this design will actually be deployed on a US Naval vessel. This is our first of several LRU's that were designed to be used on a US Naval vessel.

New "Equalizers on Demand" RF products available

Greetings! We've been very busy working on creating a new series of RF/microwave products: "Equalizers on Demand". "Equalizers on Demand" are wideband, low loss frequency equalizers made to provide a positive gain slope from the lower frequency to the upper frequency. These equalizers are designed to flatten out slope caused by long cables or other passive losses, or amplifier negative gain slopes. We have developed a wide series of equalizers with various slopes covering the following frequency bands:

• 5 KHz to 2.0 GHz
• 0.5 to 8.0 GHz
• 1.0 to 8.0 GHz
• 1.0 to 2.0 GHz
• 2.0 to 4.0 GHz
• 4.0 to 8.0 GHz
• 4.5 to 12.5 GHz

Equalizers are very important to help your system obtain the best dynamic range performance. You can use them to flatten out a negative gain slope to reduce gain tolerances/differences before going into high dynamic range amplifiers.

We're hoping this series of products create a new paradigm in RF performance. We can provide these very quickly to help correct slope in an RF path, "Equalizers on Demand" can trim RF path slopes almost as easily as attenuators can be used to adjust nominal gains.

These products were developed internally to fill a void in the RF industry. It's very difficult to quickly order a fixed slope equalizer to correct an excessive sloped RF path without waiting 10-12 weeks for delivery. Our losses at the high frequency are the lowest available in the industry. We've searched far and wide to find products with the characteristics of our products, but could not find vendors to supply them. So we bit the bullet (many bullets) and worked on these designs ourselves.

We've worked very hard to make these products easily producible. We can deliver these very quickly (typically 2-4 weeks). If you pre-order an equalizer in a certain frequency band, and then let us know what slope you need, we can most likely incorporate the slope and deliver a tested equalizer within 1-2 weeks.

For more information for the current products and designs available, please visit our "Equalizers on Demand" product page.

We hope we can help improve your RF/Microwave system performance with these products! Bob Wood

Software Manuals Updated and Uploaded

We have updated and uploaded all our software manuals. Many thanks to Amelia, who has been working very hard to create and update all our manuals, and keep them current with our latest software revisions.

Manuals for:

• SpurFinder
• TunerHelper
• RF Path Analysis Toolkit
• RFSpecTest
• Painless Extraction
• Painless Extraction NF
• PathLossSolver

can be downloaded from our Software Products page. Thanks! Bob Wood

New SpurFinder Version 3.5 Released!

Hi Everybody!

We just released a new enhanced Version 3.5 of SpurFinder. The new version provides the capability to create/load multi-scenario "script" files. The script files can contain multiple SpurFinder scenarios that can be set up for the purpose of evaluating the best spurious conversion scheme. You can "pre" set up the various spur scenarios using Excel or a text file editor, and then save the file as tab-separated text. With a single click of a line in the table, all the scenario information is transferred to the SpurFinder front panel. This allows the user to quickly evaluate many conversion schemes (without having to type all the parameters in the front panel).

You can also modify the SpurFinder front panel information and save the information back to the multi-scenario script file.

It's simple, just load a Multi Scenario Script File, select a row:

The row information is entered in the SpurFinder Panel:

For more information, go to our software page. Download the program, try it out, and let us know what you think. Thanks! Bob Wood

RF and Microwave Course Schedule for 2008 Available

We have published our RF and Microwave course schedule for 2008! We appreciate your patience in waiting for us the set up these courses.

We're offering the following courses:

• Introductory RF and Microwaves
• RF and Microwave Receiver Design
• RF Power Amplifiers, Classes A-S: How the Circuits Operate, How to Design Them, and When to Use Each

The dates and locations are:

• April 2008 in Baltimore, MD
• June 2008 in Boston MA
• September 2008 in Syracuse, NY
• November 2008 in Philadelphia, PA

Please visit our www page for more details

Introductory RF and Microwaves New Features

We've extended this course to a third day, providing a day of hands-on test and measurements exercises We've added examples of common RF measurements emphasizing the advantages and disadvantages of working with the following microwave test setups:

1. Spectral Measurement Setup with signal generators and spectrum analyzer
2. Scalar/Network Analyzer Setup
3. Power Meter Setup

Since we've added this new section, people have told us that this really helps solidify the concepts presented in the course notes. People who haven't had a chance to work with microwave devices and test equipment obtain a better understanding of the world of RF and Microwaves.

RF and Microwave Receiver Design New Features

We've added and additional 1/2 day to this course, with more hands-on examples of using software to perform receiver design tasks. This enhances our Receiver Design Problem we follow throughout the course.

We look forward to seeing you at one of these courses! Bob Wood

RF Receiver Simulator Delivered!

Hello Everybody

We just delivered our latest product: a multi-channel RF/Microwave Receiver Simulator. This device simulates the RF front end of an ESM (Electronic Support Measures) system. The simulator matched the noise figure, gain and dynamic range of the RF front end. The simulator contained 9 channels of RF bands covering from 10 MHz all the way up to 40 GHz.

Some pictures of the RF Receiver Simulator are shown below. The RF Receiver Simulator is a 3U rack-mounted assembly mounted in a protective roll-away cart for ease of transportability.

RF Path Analysis Toolkit 1.4 Released!

We just released an update to RF Path Analysis Toolkit (Version 1.4). The release contains some nice time saving features and improvements:

• Drag and Drop RF Components: In the RF Path Builder display, you can now drag and drop RF components in the path table rows. This makes it easy to move RF components around in the RF path. Previously if you wanted to move an RF component, you had to delete the RF component, and then look it up again in the library to insert it into a new location.
• Sub paths: You can now define an RF Path as a series of sub paths, which are individual RF path files. This saves potential errors and time in updating many RF paths containing the same path information. Previously, you could only manually load sub paths into an RF path file. Now they can be defined within the RF path file itself.
• Export to Excel options: Now you can select the option to leave the detailed RF path analysis spreadsheet open after "Export to Excel" is selected. Previously the detailed RF path analysis spreadsheet was closed after "Export to Excel". This is convenient for viewing the detailed results quickly as you are building RF paths.
• More information in the RF Path Builder display: As you are building an RF path in the RF Path Builder, you can now see the following parameters:
• Device Nominal Gain
• Cumulative Gain to Device Output
• Device Noise Figure
• Cumulative Noise Figure to Device Output
• Signal 1 Power at Device Output
• Signal 2 Power at Device Output
• Device Third Order Output Intercept Point
• Cumulative Third Order Input Intercept Point
• Device 1 dB Output Compression Point
• Signal 2 Delta from Device 1 dB Compression Point
• Third Order Spurs at Device Output (new!)
• Cumulative 1 dB Input Compression Point (new!)
These new parameters are helpful when designing RF paths with difficult dynamic range requirements, and provide more insight into dynamic range contributors as you are building the RF path.
• Path File Save and Load folders: You can now specify the default directory for saving and loading RF path files. Previously this was fixed to the "Level 1" directory.
• Revised template spreadsheets: We've updated and improved the template detailed analysis spreadsheets. There are now two template spreadsheets:
• RFPATTemplate4-2.xls is a simplified (but still very useful) RF path analysis spreadsheets for receivers and transmitters. Antenna gains can not be accurately incorporated into the model. Sensitivity calculations are based on the receiver RF components only.
• RFPATTemplate6-2.xls is a more advanced RF path analysis spreadsheet. This template allows for separate RF component "signal gain" and "noise gain" parameters. This allows the spreadsheet to show radiated sensitivity, because antenna gains can be taken into account (antennas have "signal gain" but no "noise gain"). Basic RF components have the same "signal gain" and "noise gain".
• File Path dialog boxes should be more descriptive and helpful.
• Other changes to the user interface/display to help clarify the operation of the program.

EW Receiver Simulator designed, built, tested, and delivered

'We just delivered an EW Receiver Simulator to one of our customers. The simulator provided the simulated RF and microwave front end performance of an EW (Early Warning) Receiver subsystem. Our simulator allows the EW Receiver/Processor to be evaluated without requiring the actual front end system. The simulator was designed to match the system front end noise figure, gain, and dynamic range. This also represents a new modular and mechanical design for us.

A block diagram of one channel of the EW Receiver Simulator is shown below:

New Software Support/Documenation Wiki

Hello Everybody
We just wanted to let you know we have set up a Wiki to document all our software products: SpurFinder, TunerHelper, PathLossSolver, RF Path Analysis Toolkit, Painless Extraction, Painless Extraction NF, and RFSpecTest. The WWW address of the software documentation Wiki is http://helprawoodsoftware.rawood.com/.

This site will be a live, real-time documentation effort. As our software products get updated, the Wiki site gets updated very quickly. No more waiting for manuals to get updated before you know what the new features are. We can quickly add new features in our software, and the software documentation Wiki will let you know what the new features are. Since the site is continuously updated, stopping by again should provide more and better documentation than the previous time.

As always, if you have questions, just let us know, and if you have any suggestions for making the Wiki better, we'd like to hear about that as well.

Thanks for visiting! -Bob Wood

Painless Extraction NF (Noise Figure) just Released!

Do you have one of the classic HP/Agilent HP8970A or HP8970B noise figure meters, but have no way to extract data electronically from the test equipment? Are you tired of outputting data to plotters, or scrolling through the frequencies to determine what the measured noise figures are?

We've just released a new program, Painless Extraction NF, which was developed to retrieve measured gain and noise figure data from the HP8970 series Noise Figure Meter. All you need is a PC GPIB card, or a USB to GPIB connection, and you can connect your laptop or PC up to the noise figure meter, retrieve the measurements, and analyze the results.

Some of the features of this new program are:

• You can enter an ENR table into the program, and send the ENR table to the noise figure meter. You can also save and load ENR table files
• One button to "Get Data" from the noise figure meter
• Once the measurements are retrieved, statistical analysis can be performed over any frequency range of measurements. Statisitics include Average, Min, Max, P-P Variation, Best Fit Line Slope, RMS, Standard Deviation, and others.
• The measured noise figure and gain data can be saved to a data file, which can then be loaded and analyzed using the program. Data is also stored in S2P format for importing noise figure readings into S2P data files for the measured devices
• A test script can be easily defined with frequency ranges and limits. The PASS/FAIL results of the test script can be saved to data files. This is very useful for high volume or "production" testing. An example script might include several tests, such as:
• Is the minimum gain over 300-900 MHz > 20 dB? (Pass/Fail)
• Is the maximum gain over 300-900 MHz < 25 dB? (Pass/Fail)
• Is the maximum noise figure over 500-900 MHz < 5 dB? (Pass/Fail)

For more information, visit our Software Products page. A demo version can be downloaded and you can try out the features of this program. Give it a try, and let us know what you think! Bob Wood

RF and Microwave Courses established for 2007

We finally have set up the schedule for our RF and Microwave/Wireless courses for 2007. We appreciate the patience people have shown while we were setting up this schedule. A quick summary of the courses and locations:

• Introductory RF and Microwaves, presented by Bob Wood
• RF Power Amplifiers, Classes A-S, presented by Nathan Sokal
• RF and Microwave Receiver Design, presented by Bob Wood

The courses will be presented in:

• Baltimore, MD in March 2007
• El Segundo, CA in April 2007
• Boston, MA in June 2007
• Syracuse, NY in September 2007
• Philadelphia PA in November 2007

More information can be found at http://www.rawood.com/seminars. We hope to meet you at one of these courses! Thanks again for your patience.
Bob Wood

Happy Holidays to All!

As the end of the year draws near, and the Holiday Season approaches, now is a good time to take a moment and wish all our vendors, customers, and clients a wonderful Holiday Season and a healthy and prosperous New Year. We have really appreciated all the hard work our vendors have gone through to help us make our deliveries on schedule, and we appreciate the opportunity our customers have given us to serve their needs. Thanks to all!

Bob Wood and the Employees at R. A. Wood Associates

New Integrated RF Test Rack Designed and Delivered

On September 15 2006, R. A. Wood Associates delivered the first two of 15 complete Integrated RF Test Racks. The Integrated RF Test Rack provided a complete solution for complete automated testing of 7 RF/Digital modules. All equipment was controlled through GPIB interfaces. All automated test software was written in National Instruments LabVIEW by R. A. Wood Associates. RFSpecTest was used in "script" mode to perform most of the RF measurements. The rack consisted of:

• 2 Signal Generators (one for RF signals, one for LO signals)
• 1 Spectrum Analyzer (for measuring RF signal amplitudes and frequencies)
• 1 Multimeter (for monitoring resistances and voltages at various points on the modules)
• 3 Power Supplies (for providing DC power to the modules under test)
• A rack mount PC with GPIB and Digital I/O cards, loaded with software for controlling test equipment and reporting test results
• A rack mount interruptible power supply (UPS)
• R. A. Wood Associates Automated RF Test Fixture
• Laser Bar Code Reader (for reading and automatic entry of module serial numbers)
• A 19" Flat Panel Display (mounted on movable monitor arm)
• Keyboard and Mouse in a slide-out ergonomic tray

The full rack was designed to be a comfortable testing environment, as well as easy to maintain. Equipment is easy to remove if needed with minimal interference to other equipment.

More information about the Integrated RF Test Rack is available from this link.