Whitepaper
Optimizing Spectrum Analyzer Measurement Speed
This Keysight application note examines factors affecting spectrum analyzer measurement speed, crucial for applications like manufacturing testing, field service, and R&D debugging. The paper details how total update time is composed of sweep time (influenced by RBW filter bandwidth and span), processing overhead (increased by features like averaging and ACP), and I/O traffic. It highlights the impact of resolution bandwidth (RBW) – a 10x reduction in RBW leads to a 100x increase in sweep time – and demonstrates how digital RBW filters, exemplified by the Keysight ESA-E series, significantly reduce measurement times compared to analog filters (up to 80x faster at 10kHz span, 1GHz carrier). The analysis extends to stand-alone versus remote operation modes, showing that optimized data formatting (using machine units instead of display units) in ATE environments can also improve throughput.