Windfreak App Note: Testing RF Generators for Reliability

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Educational Articles / By David Goins

Port Richey, Florida, January 24, 2022 – David Goins, founder of and chief engineer for Windfreak Technologies, has written a number of application notes pertaining to the specification and testing of RF and microwave frequency signal generators. Most of the articles include features and applications for Windfreak Technologies products, but the concepts are universally applicable. His latest, "Testing RF Generators for Reliability" is featured here.

Testing RF Generators for Reliability

RF Connections for SynthHD Reliability Test (Windfreak Technologies image)

Parasitic feedback mechanism (Windfreak Technologies image)

We pride ourselves in designing, building, and selling high value radio frequency products that are thoroughly evaluated and tested. All of our products go through rigorous testing before releasing to our customers. Our devices have proven to be very reliable. In rare cases, we have had a product come back for repair caused by output amplifier failures. In this post, we explain the testing process we go through to ensure our high-quality products and the two reasons for output amplifier failures.

How We Test and Verify Reliability of RF Output To verify that our RF output design is reliable, we submit several production units of each model to two long-term tests.

Full frequency range sweeping is performed on the output at maximum RF power into an open load and a short load. This test is usually run for a full week. Full frequency range sweeping at maximum RF power is performed directly into the output of another RF Signal Generator while that generator is generating approximately +20dBm of RF output power at 1GHz. In the case of the SynthHD, both channels are directly connected via a short SMA with each channel configured as above. See below. This test is usually run for a full week. To date, we currently have no RF testing products that have failed these tests.

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About Windfreak Technologies

Windfreak Technologies provides low cost, quality, innovative RF products that are used in a wide range of highly technical applications. Since the conception of Windfreak, our products have been purchased by a wide range of customers from around the world. Customers include hobbyists, education facilities, and government agencies. Our continued commitment is to keep our overhead extremely low, enabling us to provide high quality, low cost, Made-in-the-USA products. For more information about Windfreak Technologies' products or the website, please contact David Goins at 1+ (727) 490-8812 or email: dgoins@windfreaktech.com.

Contact Info:

David Goins, CTO

Windfreak Technologies, LLC

New Port Richey, Florida 34652

Office: +1 (727) 490-8812

URL: www.windfreaktech.com

Email: dgoins@windfreaktech.com

Posted January 24, 2022