|
Tektronix Software Package Extends RFID Leadership for Real-Time Spectrum
Analyzers
New Measurement and Analysis Suite for WCA200A, RSA3300A and RSA3408A
BEAVERTON, Ore., September 6, 2005 - Tektronix, Inc. (NYSE: TEK), a leading worldwide provider of test, measurement and monitoring instrumentation, introduced a new RFID software measurement suite for WCA200A, RSA3300A and RSA3408A Real-Time Spectrum Analyzers. Already the most capable spectrum analyzer for RFID testing, Tektronix continues to advance the capabilities of Real-Time Spectrum Analyzers by adding new measurements and troubleshooting features specifically designed to help the RFID engineer.
Wireless technologies continue to proliferate across industries such as healthcare, government, supply chain management, transportation and retail. In all of these markets, RFID is becoming prevalent. Like all modern Digital RF, RFID is becoming increasingly sophisticated and complex, employing time-varying RF signals, such as frequency-hopping spread spectrum and transmission timing controls. This trend requires more sophisticated test equipment and intelligent software applications to help engineers visualize the correlation between the time, frequency, modulation, and data domains. The new Tektronix RFID measurement and analysis suite for Real-Time Spectrum Analyzers will provide customers with higher confidence in the quality of the product they deliver.
“With the explosion of RFID technologies, designers are asking for greater capabilities from test and measurement instruments that are beyond the functionality of traditional spectrum analyzers,” said Rick King, Vice President, Real-Time Spectrum Analyzer product line, Tektronix. “With the RFID measurement suite for Real-Time Spectrum Analyzers, engineers can quickly troubleshoot new RFID designs, accurately verify the performance of the designs, and ensure adherence to relevant RFID industry standards. This will foster the rapid development of quality products, and reduce time to market.”
“We have used Tektronix Real-Time Spectrum Analysers in our testing as part of RFID device development,” said David Sherry, Project Manager and Senior Consultant for the Location and Tracking Group, Roke Manor Research. “The RSA3408A has helped us greatly to find and characterize transient RFID signals. This has improved our design and development productivity and ultimately our time to project completion.”
RFID Measurement Suite
RFID continues to gain traction as a core technology of the wireless world. Increasingly, designs are moving from the requirement of the RFID tag actually touching the reader to one where this physical connection with a reader is not necessary. Examples of such applications include RFID tags for toll collection, secure building access, and controls for sub-assembly movement. These environments are often characterized by the presence of multiple interrogators and tags that reside in the same area. This introduces interference as a major design constraint. In turn, the issue of interference when deploying multiple RFID systems drives needs for anti-collision techniques such as Listen Before Talk (LBT), frequency hopping and strict management of duty-cycle of signal. Increasing the data rate drives the need for high performance time related measurements such as power up/down rise/fall and turnaround time.
To assist engineers with this challenge, the new RFID measurement suite for Tektronix Real-Time Spectrum Analyzers provides support for RFID standard ISO18000 part 4 (mode 1) and part 6 (Type A, B and C) as well as the Electronic Product Code Generation 2 (EPC Gen2). Offered as options for the WCA200A, RSA3300A and RSA3408A Real-Time Spectrum Analyzers, the suite will help designers develop proper RF and modulation techniques that provide excellent response in both the frequency and time domain in accordance with specifications defined in the respective standards. With these additions, Tektronix Real-Time Spectrum Analyzers extend their industry-leading capabilities for RFID, enabling engineers to quickly solve transient RF design problems.
|
