Reducing Wireless RF Pollution by Design and Test

June 28, 2023

Noisecom's programmable noise generator, equipped with a broadband noise source and noise-path attenuator, is a platform that can evaluate a receiver's "road-worthiness" in the face of RF pollution.

David Maliniak

Related To: Microwaves & RF

This video appeared in Microwaves & RF and has been published here with permission.

This video is part of Microwaves & RF's IMS 2023 coverage.

For designers of wireless-enabled systems, and especially with regard to receivers, it's increasingly critical to be mindful of how well your design can manage the persistent onslaught of "RF pollution," or, more simply, noise. We humans may not be particularly aware of how awash we are in electromagnetic radiation, but you can be assured that's not the case with RF/mmWave receivers. Their ability to pull signals of interest out of that wash of noise is a critical figure of merit.

An extremely effective means of evaluating a receiver's road-worthiness in the face of RF pollution is to deploy a programmable noise generator. An example of such an instrument is Noisecom's UFX7000B, which includes a broadband noise source and noise-path attenuator with a maximum attenuation range of 127 dB in 0.1-dB steps.

In this video, Matthew Diessner, Director of Sales for the Wireless Telecom Group (Noisecom's parent company), demonstrates the UFX7000B noise generator's utility in testing receivers. The demo involves generation of a pulsed signal that could be an LTE or Wi-Fi signal, injecting noise into it, and observing how that signal affects a receiver as the noise floor rises. The noise is real-world white Gaussian noise that can cover 10 GHz or more in bandwidth.

For more information, visit the company's website.

About the Author

David Maliniak | MWRF Executive Editor

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.