Rohde & Schwarz and Decawave cooperate to develop T&M capabilities for UWB

Rohde & Schwarz and Decawave demonstrate test functions for the new generation of Decawave UWB devices

The test and measurement equipment company Rohde & Schwarz and the UWB technology company Decawave have jointly developed test and measurement capabilites for production line testing of UWB functions in chipsets and complete devices. As part of the cooperation, Decawave provided knowledge of the required test strategy and test methods, as well as the Decawave DW3000 as test device. Rohde & Schwarz has added UWB test capabilities to their R&S CMP200 radio communication tester, saying that this makes it the only test platform on the market able to provide R&D and production RF tests for both 5G FR2 and UWB functions.

UWB technology, based on the IEEE 802.15.4a and 802.15.4z standards, enables centimeter-accurate location measurements at distances up to 75 meters. UWB also includes secure data communication at rates up to 27 Mbps, with very low power requirements. UWB is an ideal candidate for implementing low latency, highly accurate, reliable, and secure local area location services. UWB opens new doors in the fields of mobile communication, automotive, IoT and industry 4.0 applications. The very wide bandwidth and very low power density make it possible for UWB signals to share spectrum with other narrowband and wideband systems without causing interference.

Anton Messmer, Vice President Mobile Radio Testers at Rohde & Schwarz, said: “As OEM and ODM customers get ready to deploy their UWB products, they expect test equipment to be ready and capable to meet their manufacturing needs.”

The R&S CMP200 radio communication tester is designed to meet RF test requirements for devices operating from 6 to 20 GHz in stand-alone mode, and for all essential 5G FR2 bands including 28 GHz and 39 GHz when used with the remote radio head, the R&S CMPHEAD30.