Specifications

LAN
81110A
Pulse gen
Gating hardware
Chamber
10
Radar cross-section measurements
The PNA Series provides the excellent measurement sensitivity, fast frequency agility
and data acquisition speeds necessary for RCS measurements. Excellent measurement
sensitivity is provided by mixer based downconversion technology; very fast frequency
agility is achieved through the source and receiver being located in the same instru-
ment. The PNA’s user selectable IF bandwidths, ranging from 1 Hz to 40 kHz, let you
optimize the bandwidth and measurement speed tradeoff to meet a particular test
requirement.
High-power pulses are often used in RCS measurements to overcome the high losses
due to low device reflection and two-way transmission path loss. For this reason, receiver
gating is often required in RCS measurements to avoid overloading the receiver during
the transmission of the pulsed-RF signal. Figure 8 shows an example of pulse hardware
gating, which could easily be added to a PNA RCS configuration for those applications
requiring pulse hardware gating.
Figure 8. Typical RCS measurement configuration using a PNA Option 201, PNA-X network analyzer.
Figure 9. Typical RCS measurement configuration using a Legacy (E836xC) PNA network
analyzer. PNA-L Option 216, PNA Option 201, or PNA-X can also be used.
Several additional features of the PNA Series are particularly useful in RCS configurations.
• Havingthesourceandreceiverintegratedintothesameinstrument,withachoiceof
frequency ranges is very cost effective in RCS applications.
• ForPNA-X,100,000datapointsareavailablepermeasurement;and20,001data
points are available per measurement for PNA. This provides extremely long, alias-free,
down-range resolution for RCS measurements.
• ThePNAhasaremovableharddrivetocomplywithdatasecurityrequirements.For
detailed security information, refer to “Appendix 1” on page 64.
Tx
Rx
LAN
PIN
switch
RF Source
Receiver #1
Receiver #2
PIN
switch
control
E836xC PNA network analyzer