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U8480 Series USB Thermocouple Power Sensors

Data Sheets

Improve your Power Measurement Throughput

Improve your power measurement throughput with the world’s fastest USB thermocouple power sensors. The Keysight Technologies, Inc. U8480 Series USB thermocouple power sensors come with a measurement speed of 900 readings/second and power linearity of less than 0.8%, providing high accuracy and stability to help you make average power measurements quickly and confidently. With the U8480 Series USB sensors, one of the most cost-effective solutions in Keysight’s power meter and sensor portfolio, you get top performance features at costs so affordable that every engineer can carry one in their bags.

Built-in trigger in function

Synchronize your measurement capture with the built-in trigger in function, without the need of an external module. The trigger-in function allows you to connect an external trigger signal from a signal source or the device-under-test directly to the USB sensor through a standard BNC to SMB cable.

Internal calibration

Save time and reduce measurement uncertainty with the internal calibration function. These sensors come with technology that integrates a DC reference source and switching circuits into the body of the sensor so you can calibrate the sensor while it is connected to a device-under-test. This feature removes the need for connection and disconnection from an external calibration source, speeding up testing and reducing connector wear and tear. To perform zeroing, simply turn off the device-under-test.

Legacy excellence in a compact and portable form factor

The U8480 Series is based on the same front-end design as the Keysight 8480 and N8480 Series power sensors, now equipped with USB capabilities and improved specifications such as a measurement speed ten times faster than the legacy series.

The U8480 Series plugs directly into your PC or USB-enabled Keysight instrument and gives you the capability to measure power without needing an external power meter or power supply. The sensors draw power directly from a USB port and do not need additional triggering modules to operate.

The U8480 Series is supported by the Keysight BenchVue software and BV0007B power meter/sensor control and analysis app. Once you plug the USB power sensor into a PC and run the software you can see measurement results in a wide array of display formats and log data without any programming.

Fast measurement speed

The U8480 Series USB thermocouple power sensors offer a measurement speed of 900 readings/second (in fast mode), making them the world’s fastest USB thermocouple power sensors. This feature is especially important in high volume manufacturing, where fast measurement speed is essential to maximize production throughput and increase productivity. By increasing the speed of measurements, test engineers can shorten the design cycle and accelerate the product time-to-market as they would require less time to carry out the same number of tests.

Real time measurement uncertainty

Measurement uncertainty is normally calculated manually by the user. The U8480 Series USB thermocouple power sensors now compute this value in real time and at any given point, removing the need for manual MU calculations, shortening test time, and providing highly accurate measurements. Users can also display power measurements and their measurement uncertainty simultaneously.

Gamma correction

In an ideal measurement scenario, the reference impedance of the power sensor and device-under-test (DUT) impedance should equal the reference impedance (Z0); however, this is rarely the case in practice. The mismatch in impedance values results in a portion of the signal voltage being reflected, and this reflection is quantified by the reflection coefficient, gamma.

Using the gamma correction function, users can simply input the DUT’s gamma into the USB power sensor using SCPI commands or BenchVue BV0007B power meter/sensor control and analysis app. This will remove the mismatch error, yielding more accurate measurements.

S-parameter correction

Additional errors are often caused by components that are inserted between the DUT and the power sensor, such as in base station testing where a high power attenuator is connected between the sensor and base station to reduce the output power to the measurable power range of the sensor.

The S-parameters of these components can be obtained with a vector network analyzer in the touchstone format, and inputted into the sensor using SCPI commands or BenchVue BV0007B power meter/sensor control and analysis app. This error can now be corrected using the U8480 Series USB power sensor’s S-parameter correction function. The sensor will behave as though it is connected directly to the DUT, giving users highly accurate power measurements.

Performance Specifications

Specification definitions

There are two types of product specifications:

  • Warranted specifications are specifications which are covered by the product warranty and apply over a range of 0 to 55 °C unless otherwise noted. Warranted specifications include measurement uncertainty calculated with a 95% confidence
  • Characteristic specifications are specifications that are not warranted. They describe product performance that is useful in the application of the product. These characteristic specifications are shown in italics.

Characteristic information is representative of the product. In many cases, it may also be supplemental to a warranted specification. Characteristics specifications are not verified on all units. There are several types of characteristic specifications. They can be divided into two groups.

One group of characteristic types describes ‘attributes’ common to all products of a given model or option. Examples of characteristics that describe ‘attributes’ are the product weight and ’50-Ω input Type-N connector’. In these examples, product weight is an ‘approximate’ value and a 50-Ω input is ‘nominal’. These two terms are most widely used when describing a product’s ‘attributes’.

The second group describes ‘statistically’ the aggregate performance of the population of products. These characteristics describe the expected behavior of the population of products. They do not guarantee the performance of any individual product. No measurement uncertainty value is accounted for in the specification. These specifications are referred to as ‘typical’.

Mechanical characteristics

Mechanical characteristics such as center conductor protrusion and pin depth are not performance specifications. They are, however, important supplemental characteristics related to electrical performance. At no time should the pin depth of the connector be protruding.

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