A new white paper, promoted through IEEE Spectrum and sponsored by equipment provider Electro Rent, walks RF and microwave engineers through the role of compact analog signal generators in device testing. The paper focuses on two main areas: characterizing amplifiers and verifying receivers, both of which require sources with wide output power range, low phase noise, and fast switching speed.
For amplifiers, the paper describes measuring gain and gain compression, including the P1dB point where the device moves from linear operation into saturation. It also covers two-tone intermodulation distortion testing, which reveals unwanted signal products created by nonlinearities, and explains why third-order intercept (IP3) is used to compare amplifier linearity.
On the receiver side, the white paper shows how signal generators can simulate blocker and interferer conditions using high output power and fast switching. It also covers power calibration and RSSI testing, which depend on accurate, repeatable signal sources across multiple frequency channels and bands. In addition, generators can stand in for local oscillator and clock subsystems during early-stage receiver development, before final circuit prototypes exist.
The guide is aimed at engineers and technicians working across research, development, and manufacturing, and it emphasizes practical test setups rather than theoretical background. Since this is a single sponsored source, the claims reflect the white paper's own framing rather than independent testing or comparison with other approaches.