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Keithley Instruments has launched the 2.0 version of its SignalMeister Waveform Creation Software. Introduced last year, the original version of the software tool lets engineers create highly complex signals needed to test modern RF and wireless products. With SignalMeister, designers can create waveforms for multiple signal standards and add signal impairments and channel modeling.

The created waveforms are downloaded to Keithley’s 2900 series RF vector signal generators (VSGs), which produce the final output. The software targets the testing needs of manufacturers supplying mobile phones, wireless connectivity devices, RF chip sets, and other components in both production and R&D environments.

SignalMeister 2.0 adds an object-oriented graphical user interface (GUI) that lets users generate basic and complex waveforms using graphical objects and a click-and-drag objects-based approach (see the figure). To generate the desired test signals, all you do is drag the right objects into a project work area on the screen, define their parameters, and connect them. No code writing is needed.

Optimized for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) signals, this GUI also allows users to visually create a dramatically expanded range of test waveforms. MIMO is being widely adopted in many wireless standards, including WiMAX, 802.11n Wi-Fi and some of the new 3GPP and 3GPP2 cellular standards like Long Term Evolution (LTE).

SignalMeister 2.0 lets users test all aspects of WiMAX in the 400-MHz to 4-GHz range and in Wi-Fi to 6 GHz. It supports all available modulation methods. The software includes built-in libraries for different signal types, including WCDMA, HSDPA, HSUPA, cdmaOne, cdma2000, 1xEV-DV, 802.11a/b/g/n wireless local-area networks (WLANs), and 802.16e mobile WiMAX, as well as its kin WiBro.

The new version of SignalMeister can be downloaded for the 2900 VSGs. A software license starts at $2500.

LOUIS E. FRENZEL

KEITHLEY INSTRUMENTS INC. • www.keithley.com/signal