Keysight Technologies, Inc. announced an extended collaboration with Integrated Device Technologies, Inc. (IDT) on component characterization of 5G new radio (NR) mmWave integrated circuit (IC) beamformers to accelerate development of 5G NR base stations. Network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) use beamforming technology in 5G NR base stations to improve reliability and efficiency in the mmWave frequency spectrum. Beamforming uses multiple antennas (a phased array) to transmit the same signal, thereby increasing the signal strength to and from a chosen direction to extend cellular coverage, delivering higher data rates and an improved radio environment.

As the bandwidth of integrated circuits using 5G technology increases, it is important to characterize their performance over wider frequency ranges. This is why IDT uses Keysight's high performance family of vector network analyzers (VNAs) to validate the performance of its beamformer ICs. Keysight solutions enable IDT, and other leading designers of ICs, to measure key parameters such as scattering (S) parameters, 1dB compression point (P1dB), third-order intermodulation products (IM3), and error vector magnitude (EVM).