The frequency meter market finally broke through, and technological innovation promoted a "five-level jump" in product performance

Industry insiders know that the timer/frequency meter market has been relatively quiet for many years. Lack of competition is the biggest obstacle to innovation. Product updates in this field are extremely slow, and users have very few choices.

Recently, with the emergence of Tektronix FCA and MCA series timers/frequency meters/analyzers, the market has suddenly changed. The dominance of the frequency meter market has been broken, and a new "leader of the martial arts world" is about to be born. Users can enjoy innovative products with a "five-level jump" in performance level and a more competitive price.

It is reported that Tektronix conducted extensive user surveys during the definition stage of these products, spanning the Americas, Europe, and Asia, and sampled users from various application fields in important countries such as the United States, China, Japan, France, and Germany to listen to their opinions, so that the better performance and features of the new products are truly what customers want.

The FCA and MCA series instruments can be used for the measurement and analysis of frequency, time or phase signal parameters in design, production and laboratory calibration, as well as in field applications such as radar equipment testing. The following table takes FCA3100 as an example to list some of the tools that Tektronix has used to break into the frequency meter market, and how to achieve a "five-level jump" in product performance and functionality.

One-step jump: Wider frequency range protects customer investment

Tektronix's FCA3000 and FCA3100 series offer a wide frequency range up to 20 GHz, including two 300 MHz standard inputs and an optional 3 GHz or 20 GHz input channel. The above instruments achieve 12 bits per second digital frequency resolution and a single-shot 50 ps (FCA3100) or 100 ps (FCA3000) time resolution.

As shown in the figure above, similar products can only reach the standard configuration of 225MHz at most. For users who need to measure 250MHz or 275MHz signals (such as some computer clock synchronization signals), they have to purchase a 3G option, which increases the cost by at least 50%. Nowadays, if you choose Tektronix products, you can support signal frequencies within 300MHz without adding a 3GHz option. For microwave communication applications such as radar, synthesizers/mixers, many signals are in the Ku band (12GHz-18GHz), so the 20GHz option provided by the FCA3000 and FCA3100 series also allows customers to avoid purchasing much more expensive microwave frequency meters.

For high-precision development projects above 20GHz, the MCA3000 series provides the industry's most advanced timer/frequency meter solution. With two 300MHz input channels as standard, and an optional 27 GHz or 40 GHz high-frequency input channel, the instrument can achieve a frequency resolution of 12 bits per second and a single-shot time resolution of 100ps. The MCA series integrated frequency meter can achieve frequency and power measurements through a single connection on any supported frequency band.

It is said that the return rate of Tektronix instruments is very low. These frequency meter products have strict quality assurance in every link from circuit development, material selection to production process. Tektronix promises a 3-year warranty service, which is much higher than the 1-year warranty period of similar products, showing Tektronix's confidence in its product quality.

Secondary jump: Greatly improve R&D and production efficiency

For manufacturing applications that require fast testing, the FCA series instruments can provide an internal memory data transfer speed of 250,000 samples per second, a USB/GPIB data transfer speed of up to 15,000 samples per second (block mode), and independent trigger measurements of up to 650 times per second, that is, 650 products can be measured per second, compared with similar products that can only complete 200 product measurements, and the production efficiency has increased by three times. Tektronix's products are more suitable for production lines that require higher measurement accuracy, such as computers, smart phones, tablets, and components. Dozens or even hundreds of FCA frequency meters can be deployed on each line. "A crystal oscillator manufacturer in Jiangsu is particularly interested in our measurement speed," said Qian Yong, product marketing manager for Tektronix's RF wireless product line. "The test speed of some of the frequency meter equipment they used in the past can no longer meet the needs of improving production efficiency and expanding production capacity."

In addition, the FCA series has a fast port conversion mode, which can connect two ports and perform fast signal switching (less than 30ms), completing the test of the two ports almost simultaneously. This feature is also very meaningful to manufacturers, as it can improve the efficiency of automated production.

In addition to supporting the continuous data flow measurement of the GPIB interface commonly used in production lines, the FCA series and MCA series frequency meters also provide USB interfaces that are more commonly used by laboratory users, making it convenient for them to connect to PCs for design debugging. In addition, they also exclusively provide the TIE (time difference) test function required for mobile communication applications.

Triple jump: 3.75M sample storage depth to achieve statistical analysis function

The latest frequency meter/analyzer launched by Tektronix enables design engineers to not only accurately measure more than 13 different parameters such as frequency, period, time, pulse or phase, duty cycle, Vmax, Vmin, Vp-p, etc., but also provide data statistics, bar charts, trend charts and other analysis modes for comprehensive analysis through built-in memory (corresponding to 3.75 million test points). For example, to test the performance of the crystal oscillator used for computer clock signals in the actual circuit, it is necessary to measure the change value over a period of time. In the past, frequency meters did not contain memory, but only a few counters. They could not display the graph of signal changes over time. They had to be read through the GPIB interface, which was not convenient. Software was also needed to be designed for statistics, which affected the speed and cost.

Since the test results can be stored in the FIFO buffer memory, the Tektronix frequency meter can display the signal changes by itself, and can also be connected to an external computer for continuous testing, ensuring zero dead time, thus realizing a dynamic measurement and analysis system. This feature is crucial for mechanical and medical measurements that must detect each single cycle.

In addition, for many R&D personnel, the frequency meter can perform Allan variance test in the time domain. Therefore, the feature of continuous and dead-time-free test with buffer memory is very valuable, because the Allan variance value can only be calculated by averaging the sampling points within a certain time length.

Four-step jump: LCD display can intuitively grasp the trend of measurement results

Unlike traditional LED segment display frequency meters, Tektronix's new products all use LCD displays, so they can easily display trend graphs of various test results over time, bar graphs and histograms of test result distribution, and can display measurement statistics, such as tracking the average value, standard error, maximum and minimum values ​​of measurement results, making testing more intuitive. In addition, dedicated buttons and display menus on the instrument allow users to quickly access commonly used functions, thereby shortening setup time.

Five-level hopping: Modulation domain analysis software enables high-end frequency hopping testing

Tektronix offers optional TimeView™ Modulation Domain Analysis software for Windows-based PCs that provide a deeper analysis of signal characteristics. When used with the FCA and MCA Series, it enables customers to analyze frequency versus time, implement modulation domain analyzer functions, and test Allan variance and various data statistics and analysis.

"Dedicated modulation domain analyzers are no longer available on the market, but many research institute customers (such as those who conduct high-end frequency hopping tests) still need them," Qian Yong said. "With our analysis software, customers can implement modulation domain analysis functions and test parameters such as the frequency hopping sequence and frequency hopping ringing of FM signals. For application tests of components such as phase-locked loops and mixers, there is no need to write software to implement them as before."

The latest timer/frequency meter/analyzer can be used with the PWS4000 series DC power supply recently announced by Tektronix. For various applications, these frequency meters can also be interconnected with Tektronix's oscilloscopes, multimeters, and signal source products to form a powerful test platform. In order to simplify complex tasks, customers can use the NI LabVIEW SignalExpress™ Tektronix Edition software provided to remotely control supported Tektronix instruments from a Windows-based personal computer. It can help customers automatically measure, analyze data on multiple instruments, capture and save measurement results, and create reports.