test&measurementZONE Products for the week of March 19, 2007

Agilent Technologies Says . . .
Agilent Technologies Introduces Powerful RFID Modulation Analysis for Troubleshooting EPC Gen2 RFID Systems

Agilent Technologies Inc. announced an RFID modulation analysis capability for its 89600 Vector Signal Analysis software. Featuring sophisticated new error analysis and filtering tools, as well as the ability to measure both analog and digital signals anywhere from the baseband to the antenna, it is the ideal solution for R&D designers troubleshooting RFID products, subsystems and systems.

The Agilent 89601A Option BHC RFID modulation analysis provides an advanced tool set for unfolding the intricate physical layer structure of the popular EPCglobal Class-1 Generation-2 (EPC Gen2) UHF signals. Other format RFID signals can also be analyzed using built-in presets or by manually setting the demodulation format, line coding and bit rate. With its well-designed user interface, RFID-specific measurements and up to six simultaneous, user-selected displays, R&D designers can efficiently and effectively analyze interrogator power on individual data bursts of both the RFID interrogator and tag.

Designers of EPC Gen2 systems today face a range of RF problems that are not present in systems based on previous generation standards operating at lower frequencies. These problems greatly complicate the troubleshooting process and require the use of a powerful measurement solution. Agilent's 89600 Option BHC RFID modulation analysis software addresses this challenge through its innovative combination of existing 89600 measurement and display functionality with new RFID-specific measurements and displays. These features, coupled with ease of use, provide the designer with quick and easy access to the time error and modulation information that is so crucial for effective troubleshooting of interrogator/tag systems.

Agilent's RFID modulation analysis software is the only solution on the market today that enables measurements to be made anywhere from the baseband to the antenna, on both digitized and analog signals, using a wide range of front ends, or even ADS or The MathWorks' Simulink simulations. This capability provides a significant cost and time savings since the designer can use one measurement console with consistent measurements and displays for all measurements made between the baseband and the antenna. More conventional solutions require designers to create and use different displays and measurement algorithms for each measurement.

EN-Genius Says...

The 89600 is rapidly becoming the single most flexible, powerful vector signal analyzer that has ever been conceived. The basic instrument offers time and waveform analysis, as well as measurement display and control functions, but its real power is in the software that can be used to control, measure and analyze for various industries.

At the moment those include:

• Vector modulation
• 3G
• W-CDMA
• cdma2000
• 1xEV-D0
• TD-SCDMA
• WLAN -- both OFDM and DSSS
• 802.11n MIMO
• 802.16-2004 OFDM
• 802.16 OFDMA
• TEDS
• MB-OFDM

And now Agilent adds RFID modulation analysis with Option BHC. One can have major problems with the directions that RFD is going to take those who want to track us and everything we do, but we still have to live with the technology.

This option allows for signal acquisition of RFID in a forward direction in DSB-, SSB- and PR- flavors of ASK, as well as FSK; and in reverse direction in SSB-ASK, BPSK and FSK-2. Various types of line coding are allowed from NRZ to Manchester and various Miller. The bit rate involved can be either manually set or auto-decoded. The link direction can also be automatically decoded.

The range of parameters, in both adjustable and advanced categories is huge as are the demod trace result choices -- with special emphasis on Agilent's part with ASK, BPSK, FSK modulations, plus CW, a good test for many systems to find fundamental problems that might look obtuse when tested with a modulated signal.

Option BHC software is in production with a node-locked license (89601A-BHC) priced at $7500 and a floating license (89601AN-BHC) priced at $9750.