Cleveland, Ohio -- November 4, 2002 -- Keithley Instruments, Inc. (NYSE:KEI) today announced the release of its Model 2800 RF Power Analyzer, engineered specifically for high speed testing of wireless phones, RFIC power amplifiers, and related RF devices. The Model 2800 incorporates a unique architecture that for the first time provides RF power measurements at the speed needed in production, with superior measurement quality, in an instrument far more cost-efficient than traditional solutions. The high measurement speed provided by the Model 2800 can reduce test time substantially, significantly cutting test costs. The Model 2800's superior measurement quality gives manufacturers greater confidence in measurement results and reduces false failures. The result is higher production yields. Combine the two and manufacturers get a tremendous return on their investment.

Keithley also announced that Kyocera Wireless Corp. has become the first wireless company to begin to use Keithley's new Model 2800 RF Power Analyzer RF test solution for its production facilities.

"As the No. 1 manufacturer of CDMA wireless handsets in North America, it's crucial for Kyocera that its vendors understand the unique technical and economic requirements of production testing CDMA mobile phones," said Dave Whalen, Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing at Kyocera Wireless Corp. "Keithley's Model 2800 has helped us reduce our test times at the board-level calibration stage. It also has allowed us to ensure product quality earlier and more accurately in the manufacturing process, producing better yields."

In discussing the Model 2800, Walt Strickler, Business Manager for Keithley's Telecommunications Group, noted, "We've spent several years learning about the production test needs associated with manufacturing wireless handsets and developing our RF expertise. We don't want to be just another provider of RF test equipment. Our strategy is to target specific areas of the applications we serve already where there are unmet test requirements. The end result of this strategy is the ability to develop instrumentation that changes the way our customers can manufacture electronic products. The Model 2800 is just one example of this approach - its architecture makes it faster, more accurate, and lower in cost than other instruments currently being used. That offers handset manufacturers a critical advantage for the time-consuming measurements required to calibrate a mobile phone. As a result, our customers can get more throughput with their existing production lines or reduce the number of production lines needed to maintain their current production levels."

Instrument Background

The Model 2800 RF Power Analyzer is engineered specifically for production test of wireless phones, RFIC power amplifiers, and related RF devices designed to the AMPS, cdmaOne, North American digital cellular (TDMA), GSM, GPRS, EDGE, PDC, cdma2000 1X, cdma2000 3X, and W-CDMA standards. It is an alternative to general-purpose, display-based spectrum analyzers and communication test sets, which are relatively slow, large, more expensive, and better suited to research and development applications. In contrast, the Model 2800 RF Power Analyzer is a compact, production-oriented instrument designed to make only those RF measurements essential to manufacturing mobile phones. As a result of this focus, the Model 2800 is faster, more accurate, easier to use, and lower in cost than current alternatives. As wireless communication protocols grow more complex and the mobile handset market matures, the handset production process must evolve in ways that reduce costs while accommodating emerging technical requirements for test and measurement. The Model 2800 satisfies both these needs.

Applications and Markets

Industry standards for wireless phone transmission require measuring power in certain specified bandwidths. A cellular phone power calibration test routine may require many power measurements per frequency band, which must be performed on every phone leaving the production line. Multi-mode (multi-standard) and multi-frequency band phones require power measurements for each operating mode and frequency band. The Model 2800 is designed for measuring power in the cellular bands, the higher DCS and PCS bands, and the WCDMA (UMTS)/cdma2000 bands. In addition to measuring power in defined primary transmission channels, it can measure spurious or interfering power at specific frequency offsets, like the upper and lower channels adjacent to the primary channel, as well as the upper and lower alternate channels. Adjacent channel power measurements let test engineers determine adjacent channel power ratios (ACPR), which are needed to ensure wireless devices and components don't exceed the limits for spurious emissions/interference defined by industry standards.

The Model 2800 also measures carrier frequency so manufacturers can verify that their device-under-test is transmitting at the proper frequency.

The Model 2800 is optimized for testing RFIC wireless phone power amplifiers and wireless phones designed to the AMPS, cdmaOne, North American digital cellular (TDMA), GSM, GPRS, EDGE, cdma2000 1X, cdma2000 3X, and WCDMA standards. Information on testing for compliance to other standards is available.

High Measurement Speed

The Model 2800 offers the fastest measurement speed available for any product that can make programmable bandwidth measurements. It can make a 1.23MHz bandwidth cdmaOne primary power measurement and transfer the measurement to a computer in 6ms. It can measure a 3.84MHz bandwidth primary channel measurement in 10ms, and can make power measurements on consecutive 577µs GSM pulses occurring every 4.6ms. It can make a cdmaOne primary power measurement, an upper adjacent power measurement, lower adjacent power measurement, upper alternate power, and lower alternate power - a total of five measurements - in only 23ms (including PC command time and data transfer to the PC time). A GSM primary power measurement and two spurious power measurements take only 14ms. These measurement times are 4 to 10x faster than those from competitive methods.

Test speed is further enhanced by the fact that the Model 2800 includes setups for each of the cellular phone standards. One command programs the Model 2800 to prepare to make power measurements based on a specific standard. Overall, it takes only five commands to set up the instrument and to make a primary power measurement and four alternate/adjacent channel measurements. Other methods take at least twice as many commands.

For wireless device testing, the Model 2800 has measurement performance that exceeds that of general-purpose programmable bandwidth measurement devices such as spectrum analyzers. The Model 2800 provides a more than sufficient dynamic range. For example, in applications involving cdmaOne, the Model 2800 has a dynamic range of greater than 90dB. Basic accuracy is +/-0.3dB. Repeatability is 0.05dB for CW signals and 0.1dB for complex modulated signals. VSWR is less than 1.3:1.

In addition, the Model 2800 does not require an external power sensor and all circuitry from the intermediate frequency (IF) stage to the IEEE-488 bus is digital. Thus, it offers excellent stability and requires calibration only once a year.

Part of a Complete Solution to Wireless Testing

The Model 2800 Power Analyzer is a major addition to Keithley's wireless instrument line, which offers a growing number of highly targeted solutions for wireless device testing.

Please call us for more information.