Software for power meters

Anritsu has introduced PowerMax software providing an enhanced visualisation of instrument display and simplified remote control of the company’s ML2490A series power meters via ethernet.

The remote user interface can configure the single sensor input ML2495A and dual sensor input ML2496A so that results and traces can be shown in a larger format on a laptop or monitor, giving design engineers a better view of measurement results to ensure the performance of high bandwidth designs.

With the software, measurement results for up to eight gates can be simultaneously displayed on a monitor. Up to four marker readings can be displayed. The software also creates simple configuration tabs so that the power meters can be controlled directly from a computer.

Measurement result images and traces can be saved directly on the computer’s hard drive or removable storage, allowing raw data to be recalled and used as reference.

The ML2490A is designed for the demands of the rapid rise time radar measurements and the latest 4G wireless applications. The series has a 65 MHz mainframe bandwidth. The power meters have a typical rise time of 8 ns with 1 ns resolution, when used with the MA2411B pulse sensor.

Single- and multi-pulse radar signals can be precisely measured using multiple gates, markers and a suite of dedicated pulse functions.

The software measures the peak, average and crest factor of continuous and framed OFDM and is suitable for WLAN and WiMAX applications. Because the series conducts measurements independently of the protocol or modulation scheme, measurements can be made on multi-carrier and multi-channel systems.

The ML2496A dual input instrument solves many of the measurement problems associated with designing and manufacturing amplifiers. OFDM/WCDMA modulation requires the power amplifier to precisely track the symbol power envelope to keep the error rate low and avoid generating broadband noise.

Power amplifier designers can use the ML2496A to optimise the gain and output power of transmitters under pulsed or high crest factor conditions.