The fast-growing cellular market in China has driven Keithley in developing communications testing technologies.
Keithley Instruments, Cleveland, Ohio, recently announced a partnership with the Institute of Mobile Communications (IMC) at the Southwest Jiaotong Univ. in Chengdu, Sichuan, a major city in the southwest area of China. The partnership calls for the IMC and Keithley to work together on joint research projects to expand existing applications as well as research in emerging wireless applications and technologies. The IMC, in partnership with Keithley, will be able to establish an advanced research multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) platform.
As a leading provider of advanced, next-generation RF (radio frequency) test equipment, Keithley is uniquely positioned to aid the work of the IMC, a growing research institution for wireless technology, particularly in multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) applications.
This partnership follow the purchase last year of Lyocom, Richfield, Ohio, a company that developed and sold software algorithms for generating and analyzing complex digital waveforms. This software acquisition was key to the extension of Keithley's MIMO technologies. By providing fast frequency tuning, rapid attenuator switching, and high speed digital signal processing, test time is reduced, along with overall system costs.
Evolving test systems
The Model 2895 MIMO Synchronization Unit provides synchronized signals to the system instruments. This gives the system a highly precise and stable alignment between up to four signal analyzers or signal generators. Image: Keithley Instruments
MIMO is an emerging wireless communications technology that responds to the growing demand for more data in mobile communications devices. The newest wireless standards are based on MIMO. MIMO is the evolution of SISO (single input, single output) test systems. Last fall, Keithley released the industry leading 4x4 MIMO RF test system for R&D and production testing-a 4x4 system contains four transmitters and four receivers. The transmission of multiple signals requires the accurate synchronization of multiple channels in phase and sampling alignment.
The Keithley 4x4 system consists of its new Model 2920 Vector Signal Generator and Model 2820 Vector Signal Analyzer, Model 2895 MIMO Synchronization Unit, and MIMO Signal Analysis Software. The system offers support for numerous commercial standards including cellular, WiMAX, and WLAN. It also has +/- 1 nsec peak-to-peak signal sample jitter and less than 1 degree of peak-to-peak RF-carrier phase jitter.
The 4x4 MIMO RF test system features a frequency range to 6 GHz with an optional 20, 40, or 80 MHz arbitrary waveform generator bandwidth with 100 Msamples of waveform memory and 40 MHz of receiver bandwidth.
With these capabilities, the Keithley system can support MIMO measurements on demanding signals, such as 802.11n WLAN MIMO and 802.16e Wave 2 Mobile WiMAX. Earlier this year, Keithley received an Honorable Mention in Test & Measurement World magazine's 2008 Best in Test Awards for this system for bringing significant technological advancement to the market in the test industry.
"Wireless communication products continue to be major drivers in the global electronics market," says Mark Hoersten, VP of business management at Keithley. "As a result, researchers working on developing the next generation of wireless communications products need leading-edge test instruments."
Pingzhi Fan, director of information coding and transmission at the IMC agrees. "Information theory-based coding and transmissions play an important role in the future of communications and information technology. Our partnership is an excellent opportunity for IMC to strengthen our relationship with industry, accelerate important academic contributions, and improve our practical development and testing capability."
Wireless communications in China, in the form of cellular- and Internet-driven devices, has become the world's fastest growing market. The number of cellular subscribers in China stands at about 555 million and growing at a rate of 3 million new subscribers per week. Internet users (wired and wireless) were estimated at 162 million in 2007 and growing at a rate of more than 12% per year.
