Accelerate Innovation at European Microwave Week 2026
RF engineers know that small things can become surprisingly important. A few extra dBs, a little more bandwidth, a change in frequency, a connector that wasn't quite behaving as expected, or a signal that looks perfectly reasonable until you look a little closer.
At microwave frequencies, details have a habit of becoming the main event. And as RF systems become more complex, there are a lot more details to keep track of. Frequencies are moving higher, bandwidths are getting wider, and systems are becoming increasingly integrated. New applications are extending into the sub-THz range, satellite networks are becoming an increasingly important part of the connectivity landscape, and researchers are exploring technologies that could shape 6G.
At the same time, engineers are looking for ways to move through development cycles faster and with greater confidence. That means being able to measure accurately, understand what is happening, recreate realistic conditions, and explore more design possibilities.
But there's another piece to the puzzle: connecting these capabilities. A measurement can inform a model, a model can influence a design, a realistic simulation can recreate a difficult test condition, and AI can help engineers explore more possibilities without requiring an equally large increase in manual effort.
That's the bigger picture we'll be exploring at EuMW 2026: connecting measurement, modeling, simulation, validation, and optimization to accelerate innovation.
From Better Measurements to Better Decisions
A good design decision starts with good data. As designs move across different frequencies, device types, and stages of development, the way engineers generate that data continues to evolve. A measurement approach that works well for a component in an R&D lab may look very different when validating a complex system or preparing a design for production.
As applications move toward higher frequencies and wider bandwidths, engineers are working across increasingly broad frequency ranges and characterizing devices with greater precision. That makes measurement scalability increasingly important. Engineers need to characterize active and passive devices, support converter and non-converter measurements, and move from R&D into manufacturing while maintaining confidence in their results.
The earlier reliable insight is available, the more opportunities there are to refine a design, compare alternatives, and make informed decisions. It's much easier to change a design when you're looking at a model than when you're looking at a production line wondering what happened.
At EuMW, we'll explore how advances in RF measurement can help engineers move from device characterization to system-level insight and accelerate the path from research to production.
When the Test Setup Becomes Part of the Story
Once you've characterized the device, the next question is what happens when you give it a real signal. Modern RF systems are producing increasingly complex waveforms, with wider bandwidths, higher frequencies, and multiple channels. A single measurement is often only one part of the picture. Engineers need to understand characteristics such as EVM, modulation quality, bandwidth, and multi-channel behavior to build a more complete view of system performance. That requires signal analysis capabilities that can keep pace with the systems being developed.
But understanding the signal also means knowing how much confidence you can place in the signal source itself. When you're making high-SNR measurements, signal-source quality can have a direct impact on the performance you're able to observe. This becomes especially important when working with lossy test setups or exploring the limits of a high-performance DUT. When you're chasing the last bit of performance, you probably don't want the test setup quietly becoming part of the experiment.
Signal purity is therefore more than a specification on a signal generator. It can directly influence the confidence you have in your measurements and the decisions you make from them. At EuMW, we'll show how advances in signal generation and analysis can help engineers gain a clearer picture of what's happening in RF systems, from wideband communication signals to demanding high-frequency applications.
When the Lab Becomes a Window into the Real World
The lab gives engineers something extremely valuable: control. The real world, unfortunately, doesn't always offer the same convenience. Once an RF system is deployed, it operates alongside other signals and in environments that can change continuously. Understanding the spectrum around a system can be just as valuable as understanding the system itself. Engineers need to identify signals, locate sources of interference, record what happened, and analyze RF activity in environments where conditions can change quickly.
Portable measurement capabilities extending to very high frequencies, combined with spectrum management, direction finding, and IQ recording and replay, can help provide a clearer picture of what is happening in the field. But capturing a real-world condition is only half the story. The interesting part is being able to bring that condition back into the lab.
Positioning, navigation, and timing provide a good example. GNSS performance depends on the environment and operating conditions, and recreating those environments in the lab gives engineers a controlled and repeatable way to investigate performance across different constellations and dynamics. With the accuracy, synchronization, and latency required for demanding test scenarios, engineers can explore PNT performance under realistic conditions without waiting for the right combination of circumstances to happen again. This is useful when those circumstances involve satellites, interference, and several variables that don't necessarily follow your test schedule.
The ability to move between field experience and laboratory validation can provide deeper insight into how a system will perform across a wide range of environments. It can also turn real-world observations into repeatable test conditions and models that can be used to investigate problems and validate solutions.
When the Test Environment Starts Moving
The need for realistic testing becomes even more important as networks extend beyond the ground. Non-terrestrial networks bring new dimensions to the RF development process. Satellites are moving, Doppler is changing, propagation delay matters, beams have to be managed, and multipath fading can influence the link. In other words, the test environment is moving too.
Testing these systems effectively means recreating those conditions in the lab, giving engineers a controlled environment for end-to-end validation. At EuMW, we'll show how realistic satellite link emulation can help engineers validate 5G NR-NTN designs against 3GPP models and evaluate device and modem performance, link quality, and handover behavior under representative LEO conditions. Positioning can also be incorporated into the workflow to support GNSS-based testing.
And while NTN is extending the capabilities of today's networks, researchers are already looking further ahead. 6G is still an evolving area, which makes experimentation particularly exciting. Engineers need to investigate ultra-wideband signals, MIMO architectures, and new physical-layer technologies while the next generation of wireless systems is still taking shape.
There's something exciting about working on technology before all the answers exist. You can test an idea, discover something unexpected, change an assumption, and try again. It's less like following a recipe and more like figuring out the recipe while you're cooking.
Being able to experiment with future network concepts today gives researchers and engineers a way to explore new ideas, understand their practical implications, and begin turning research into technologies that can eventually be validated. At EuMW, you'll be able to see how researchers and engineers can connect to live innovation environments and explore emerging technologies with our experts.
When There Are Too Many Possibilities
There is another opportunity emerging alongside all this technical complexity: exploring more of the design space. A modern RF design can involve many interacting variables. Engineers may move between simulation tools, build models, run iterations, evaluate different architectures, and refine the design as they learn more. And at some point, the number of possibilities can become large enough that you start wondering whether you're optimizing the design or simply optimizing the number of simulations you're running.
This is where AI can offer another way to work. Rather than treating AI as something separate from engineering, it can be connected to the tools, models, and design knowledge already part of an engineer's workflow.
The potential becomes particularly interesting when there are many design options to investigate, and beamforming is a good example. A realistic phased-array design brings together RF transceiver impairments, antennas, feed networks, propagation, and analog and digital beamforming. There are a lot of variables, and, as engineers know, they don't always behave independently just because we'd like them to.
Starting with measurement-based models of commercial beamformer and transmit/receive modules makes it possible to connect physical measurements with simulation and build a more representative digital twin of the system. Engineers can then explore design choices, optimize system performance, and automate parts of the workflow while keeping engineering judgment at the center of the process.
Because sometimes the most valuable result isn't the answer. It's discovering which question is worth asking next.
Meet Keysight at EuMW 2026
Across RF and microwave engineering, the direction of travel is exciting. Technologies are becoming more capable, systems are becoming more connected, and engineers have more opportunities than ever to explore what is possible. But making that progress requires more than any single measurement, simulation, or AI capability. It requires connecting the pieces: measuring what is real, building models that represent it, recreating challenging conditions, exploring possible designs, and validating the results.
At European Microwave Week 2026, we'll bring these ideas together through hands-on experiences covering RF and sub-THz characterization, signal generation and analysis, spectrum and PNT resilience, NTN and 6G, and AI-driven engineering. You'll be able to explore the technologies, see how they connect across the engineering workflow, and talk directly with our experts about the challenges you're working to solve.
We'll also be contributing to the conference program through workshops, short courses, forums, and technical sessions, giving you opportunities to go deeper into the technologies and engineering challenges shaping the industry.
So if you're heading to EuMW, come and explore what's possible with us. Bring your questions, your ideas, and the challenges you've been trying to address. And if you have a design that's behaving perfectly in simulation but has other plans once it reaches the bench, we'd definitely like to hear about that too.
Looking forward to seeing you at EuMW 2026.