Accuracy Improvement of Oscilloscope Based Modulated RF Measurements

A statistical averaging method based on an extended Kalman filter is applied to digital sampling oscilloscope (DSO) measurements of modulated RF signals. Various measurements using a 48 Mbit/s 802.11a signal modulated onto a 1.9 GHz carrier are used to demonstrate significant performance enhancements as compared to traditional measurement techniques. The method presented shows that a general purpose high frequency DSO can replace more expensive and dedicated equipment for accurate characterization of microwave devices under modulated signal excitation