Copper Mountain Technologies (CMT) has introduced a new series of vector network analyzers (VNAs) designed to efficiently handle advanced testing applications. The Cobalt series, which presently features the C1220 and C1209 models, supports S-parameter measurement between 100 kHz and 20 GHz.
The design and production of Cobalt VNAs incorporates several new manufacturing and test approaches to balance performance and cost. Contributing to Cobalt's metrological accuracy is testing-grade coaxial connector technology for internal interconnect and tight tolerances. Advanced electromagnetic modeling optimizes the 20 GHz Cobalt's ultra-wideband directional coupler design, and new production methods for precision airstrip lines provide the directional couplers with stability, both over temperature and over very long intervals of time.
In addition, Cobalt's hybrid dual-core DSP+FPGA signal processing engine, combined with frequency synthesizer technologies, serves to increase the device's overall measurement speed. The accelerated measurement speeds and compact design make Cobalt VNAs suitable for production and BTS filter tuning applications without taking up a lot of space.
The C1220 analyzer boasts a frequency range of 100 kHz to 20 GHz. It provides a typical dynamic range of 145 dB, an output power adjustment range of -60 dBm to +10 dBm, and measures up to 500,001 measurement points per sweep. C1220 can reach a measurement speed of 10 microseconds per point and has dimensions of 14.8" x 16.3" x 5.5" (376 x 415 x 140 mm).
The C1209 features many of the same technical specifications and is capable of analyzing the frequency range from 100 kHz to 9 GHz. With dimensions of 14.8" x 8.3" x 3.7" (377 x 210 x 95 mm) and a weight of just 4.8 kg, the smaller C1209 is about a "half rack" in width.
Like all VNAs in the Copper Mountain Technologies portfolio, Cobalt VNAs are PC-driven, meaning the design separates the measurement module from the processing module so that its software can offload processing of the measurement results to an external PC.
