National Instruments Announces Industry's First PXI RF Vector Network Analyzer

AUSTIN, Texas Aug. 3, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NIWeek -- National Instruments (Nasdaq: NATI) today introduced the NI PXIe-5630 6 GHz two-port vector network analyzer (VNA), the automated test industry's first VNA available in a compact PXI form factor. With support for full vector analysis of transmission and reflection (T/R) parameters, precision automatic calibration and flexible software-defined architecture, the new VNA is ideally suited for automated design validation and production test. Its modular PXI architecture and small, two-slot footprint make it possible for test engineers to incorporate vector network analysis into their test systems without the added cost and large footprint of traditional benchtop VNAs.

"The 6 GHz VNA demonstrates our continued investment in delivering RF solutions that help engineers increase test accuracy and throughput while reducing setup cost, size and complexity," said Phil Hester, senior vice president of research and development at National Instruments. "We are proud to add this VNA to our already strong and growing RF portfolio of PXI modular instruments."

The NI PXIe-5630 is optimized for automated test with a mature feature set including automatic precision calibration, full vector analysis on both ports, reference plane extensions and a flexible LabVIEW API that is ideal for parallel test. The VNA also delivers advanced performance specifications including a frequency range of 10 MHz to 6 GHz, a wide dynamic range of greater than 110 dB and sweep speeds of less than 400 microseconds/point over 3,201 points. Additionally, because of its PXI configuration, engineers can combine up to eight NI PXIe-5630 modules in a single PXI chassis and perform multisite RF test in true parallel fashion.

Engineers can control the NI PXIe-5630 interactively using its full-featured soft front panel, or programmatically using APIs for NI LabVIEW software and NI LabWindows™/CVI ANSI C development environments. Both APIs are optimized for multicore processing to facilitate parallel test of multiple RF components, which provides a significant throughput advantage over sequential, switched testing.

The NI PXIe-5630 further expands the already-wide selection of PXI modular instrumentation for automated test. As an added benefit of its industry-standard PXI configuration, the VNA integrates with more than 1,500 PXI instruments from NI and more than 70 other vendors to address the requirements of almost any test application.

The VNA will be available in October 2010. To learn more about the NI PXIe-5630, readers can visit www.ni.com/vna.

About National Instruments

National Instruments (www.ni.com) is transforming the way engineers and scientists design, prototype and deploy systems for measurement, automation and embedded applications. NI empowers customers with off-the-shelf software such as NI LabVIEW and modular cost-effective hardware, and sells to a broad base of more than 30,000 different companies worldwide, with no one customer representing more than 3 percent of revenue and no one industry representing more than 15 percent of revenue. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 5,000 employees and direct operations in more than 40 countries. For the past 11 years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America. Readers can obtain investment information from the company's investor relations department by calling (512) 683-5090, e-mailing [email protected] or visiting www.ni.com/nati. (NATI-G)

CVI, LabVIEW, National Instruments, NI, ni.com and NIWeek are trademarks of National Instruments. The mark LabWindows is used under license from Microsoft Corporation. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

SOURCE National Instruments