Fast, wideband search for spurious responses

A high-speed, wideband, low-level spur test technique is presented, and its basic characteristics are described and compared with those of traditional test methods; i.e., sweeping or stepping a narrowband receiver. The system consists of a wideband tunable receiver whose IF output is analyzed by a high-speed, wideband tunable filter bank analyzer. The example system uses a wideband Tektronix 2756P spectrum analyzer in zero span mode as a receiver and a Tektronix 3052 DSP system for IF analysis. Other DSP tools such as fast data averaging, spectral event detection, and programmable signal finding markers are used to further shorten test times. The speed advantage is realized in wideband tests to spur levels of roughly -80 dBm and below. The main benefit is extraordinarily shorter test times, especially in detecting and measuring low-level spurs