TSP #183 – Experiments & Exploration with the Amazing Vintage (1966) HP Frequency Meter Instruments

February 20, 2021 No comments

In this episode Shahriar describes the operation of the vintage HP frequency meter devices. These instruments were designed in the mid-1960’s and offer extremely good performance. The principle operation is based on a quarter-wave tuned cavity which is mechanically adjusted with high precision. The cavity is coupled to the through line which causes a dip of about 1.5dB at resonance.

The internal structure and design challenges are presented. A frequency meter is then used to measure a single tone and two-tone signal with impressive accuracy. The scaler transmission response of the frequency meter is also presented.

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TSP #182 – Antikernel Labs Inexpensive Multi-GHz Transmission Line Probe Review & Experiments

February 7, 2021 No comments

In this episode Shahriar takes a look at the design and performance of the open-source ALK-PT1 passive probe. This probe uses is based on a classical transmission line feed structure and has gone through many iterations to improve its performance. The design tradeoffs of various passive probes are explored and the performance of the ALK-PT1 is measured both in S-parameters domain and time domain using NRZ serial data at various data rates.

You can get your own AKL-PT1 Passive Probe from Antikernel Labs:
https://www.antikernel.net/products.html

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TNP #3 – Zeiss Microscope LED Upgrade & Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) Microscopy Preview

January 30, 2021 No comments

In this episode Shahriar works on a Carl-Zeiss Axioskop with Differential Interference Contrast Microscopy. The instrument has bene meticulously restored to a working condition. The scope is retrofitted with an LED illumination source. Although not idea, it does offer good brightness and uniform illumination. An ideal source would have to be a point source.

The microscope is used to examine an integrated circuit revealing the intricate BEOL of the chip. Furthermore, DIC imaging shows the non-uniformity of the internal integrated circuit metal surfaces.

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TSP #181 – Starlink Dish Phased Array Design, Architecture & RF In-depth Analysis

January 10, 2021 No comments

In this episode Shahriar takes a detailed look at the Starlink Satellite Dish. The dish was kindly sent by Ken who has done his own initial teardown here:

https://youtu.be/iOmdQnIlnRo

The dish is analyzed layer by layer from the radome down to individual integrated circuits. The RF design, system architecture and many aspects of the overall product are described in details. An X-Ray of the RF stack is also shown which further explores the design of the array.

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TSP #180 – Rohde & Schwarz ZNL 5kHz – 6GHz VNA, SA, Power Meter Combo Review, Teardown & Experiments

December 25, 2020 No comments

In this episode Shahriar takes a detailed look at the Rohde & Schwarz ZNL 5kHz – 6GHz Combo VNA, Spectrum Analyzer & Power Meter instrument:

https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/us/product/znl-productstartpage_63493-432704.html

The instrument offers excellent performance as well as two-port vector network analyzer for bidirectional measurements and Wide dynamic range of 130dB. This review is organized as follows:

00:00 – Introduction, instrument overview (front/back), basic specifications
05:26 – Teardown, RF analysis, instrument architecture and design
13:58 – Experiments overview, network analyzer functions, calibration, sweep mode, etc.
28:43 – Spectrum analyzer mode, MultiView multi-mode overview, built-in measurements, TOI, etc.
38:08 – Power meter capability, integrated power, TOI versus Pdc, etc.
47:04 – Real-time capabilities, AM/FM demodulation, digital analysis, 3D spectrogram, vector analysis, RF triggering
55:54 – Noise Figure measurement capabilities
58:34 – Concluding remarks

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