Lucent Technologies Inc.

American Telephone and Telegraph, Co.

Chauncey Herring

Michael S Heutmaker

Eleanor Wu

Jose M Miranda

Derwin H Bell

An RF device (12), such as an amplifier, is tested by applying a digitally-modulated RF stimulus signal, having a known magnitude and phase angle, to the device to cause it to generate a response signal. The response signal of the device is down-converted and digitized prior to establishing its magnitude and phase angle. The magnitude and phase angle of the digitized, down-converted response signal are compared to the magnitude and phase angle, respectively, of the digitally-modulated stimulus signal to yield transfer functions indicative of the operation of the device.

Method and apparatus for testing RF devices

Automatic selection of the rate at which a periodic signal is sampled to obtain a selected number of samples thereof within a predetermined interval is accomplished by first selecting the number of samples to be taken. The periodic signal is then sampled at an arbitrary rate, with the sampling being synchronized to the period of the signal. The number of samples obtained by sampling at the arbitrary rate is counted and compared to the chosen number of samples. If the counted number of samples is unequal to the chosen number of samples, then the arbitrary sampling rate is adjusted. The steps of sampling the signal, counting the number of samples, comparing the counted number to the chosen number of samples, and adjusting the arbitrary sampling rate are repeated until the counted number of samples equals the chosen number of samples, whereupon the adjusted arbitrary sampling rate becomes the selected sampling rate.

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Trenton, NJ, United States of America

Chauncey Herring