Agilent Technologies N9010A - Manual (Page 127)

Chapter 10 127
Option ESC - External Source Control
General Specifications
b. The analyzer always sweeps in a positive direction, but the source may be configured to sweep in the
opposite direction. This can be useful for analyzing negative mixing products in a mixer under test, for
example.
Description Specification Supplemental Information
Dynamic Range
(10 MHz to 3 GHz, Input terminated,
sample detector, average type = log,
20 to 30°C)
Dynamic Range =
−10 dBm − DANL −
10
×log(RBW) a
a. The dynamic range is given by this computation:
−10 dBm − DANL − 10×log(RBW) where DANL is
the displayed average noise level specification, normalized to 1 Hz RBW, and the RBW used in the
measurement is in hertz units. The dynamic range can be increased by reducing the RBW at the
expense of increased sweep time.
SA span SA RBW Option
≤
526 Option >526
1 MHz 2 kHz 101.0 dB 104.0 dB
10 MHz 6.8 kHz 95.7 dB 98.0 dB
100 MHz 20 kHz 91.0 dB 94.0 dB
1000 MHz 68 kHz 85.7 dB 88.0 dB
Amplitude Accuracy Multiple contributors
b
Linearity
c
Source and Analyzer Flatness
d
YTF Instability
e
VSWR effects
f
b. The following footnotes discuss the biggest contributors to amplitude accuracy.
c. One amplitude accuracy contributor is the linearity with which amplitude levels are detected by the
analyzer. This is called "scale fidelity" by most spectrum analyzer users, and "dynamic amplitude accu-
racy" by most network analyzer users. This small term is documented in the Amplitude section of the
Specifications Guide. It is negligibly small in most cases.
d. The amplitude accuracy versus frequency in the source and the analyzer can contribute to amplitude
errors. This error source is eliminated when using normalization in low band (0 to 3.6 GHz). In high
band the gain instability of the YIG-tuned prefilter in the analyzer keeps normalization errors nomi-
nally in the 0.25 to 0.5 dB range.
e. In the worst case, the center frequency of the YIG-tuned prefilter can vary enough to cause very sub-
stantial errors, much higher than the nominal 0.25 to 0.5 dB nominal errors discussed in the previous
footnote. In this case, or as a matter of good practice, the prefilter should be centered. See the user's
manual for instructions on centering the preselector.
f. VSWR interaction effects, caused by RF reflections due to mismatches in impedance, are usually the
dominant error source. These reflections can be minimized by using 10 dB or more attenuation in the
analyzer, and using well-matched attenuators in the measurement configuration.