A PXI fast switching LO synthesizer enables 26.5 GHz synthetic instruments

PXI synthetic instrumentation is an emerging technology that offers a cost-effective modular approach for building complex test and measurement equipment. The performance of synthetic instruments primarily depends on technical characteristics of their core modules such as a downconverter and LO oscillator. This paper presents a fast switching frequency synthesizer module, which covers 3 to 9 GHz frequency band with a 0.1 Hz step size. The developed module occupies two standard 3-U PXI slots and is used as an LO source for a 26.5 GHz harmonic downconverter. The module construction and test results are discussed.