Economical modulated RF power amplifiers for pre-compliance testing

Saelig has released the TekBox TBMDA2/TBMDA3 Modulated Wideband Power Amplifiers, which are created to produce an economical signal source for pre-compliance immunity testing of PCBs and products. Run by the tracking generator output of a spectrum analyser, the devices give the increased RF power outputs needed by many test environments. With an input power range of up to -8dBm/0dBm, these devices can increase the output power of a tracking generator up to 500mW/5W or 40dB from 10MHz to beyond 1GHz. As well as other applications, the TBMDAx amplifiers are excellent for driving TekBox near-field probes to identify problem areas of an electronic circuit or to produce electric fields up to 550V/m when driving TekBox TEMcells. Test signals for immunity testing can be CW or AM/PM modulated. These amplifiers incorporate built-in modulation capabilities to generate 1kHz AM or PM signals. In PM mode, the amplifiers can also generate a 217Hz Signal with 12.5% duty cycle to simulate mobile phone TDMA noise. The TBMDA2 is powered by external 5V and consuming around 3.5W, and the TBMDA3 is powered by external 100V-240V and consumes 20W.