Advances in Microwave Measurements

Historically there has been four distinct architectural developmental phases of electronics measurement instruments. First we had purely analog types, then the read-out indicator was upgraded to a digital meter; during the seventies, the microprocessor was running all aspects of an instrument, through the use of digital processing. Finally, the "Instrument-on-a-card" type of architecture promises entirely new ways of designing instruments. Other major changes occurred in the field of Signal Analysis, during the last few years. The original "Time Domain Oscilloscope" was transformed, using Fourier transformation to the "Frequency Domain Oscilloscope", which we call the Spectrum Analyzer. Lately a third transformation is providing new ways of evaluating signals not able to evaluate before, using "Modulation Domain" techniques.