JPH0738512A - Automatic measuring device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Object] The present invention relates to a device for automatically measuring a plurality of test items of a VSAT device, and realizes an automatic measuring device capable of measuring characteristics without changing the physical connection of the measuring device. The purpose is to [Construction] The device under test 10 is a VSAT device, the output signal of which is branched into two by a coupler unit 20, one of which is input to an RF switch unit 50, and the other of which is selected by the WG switch unit 30 as only one signal. It The mixer section 40 separates the input signals into respective measurement frequencies, and down-converts each into a frequency band suitable for the measurement by the measuring device 62.
The RF switch unit 50 selects each output signal of the coupler unit 20 and the mixer unit 40 according to the test item according to the output control signal of the control unit 70, and performs measurement according to the test item among the measuring instruments 61 to 63. Output to a container.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic measuring device, and more particularly to VSAT (Very Small Aperture).
(Terminal) device for automatically measuring a plurality of test items of the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, it has been known that a plurality of measuring items for multiple lines of a telephone line are automatically measured by preparing a plurality of measuring instruments (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 58-157).
No. 230) discloses a plurality of test items for a VSAT device, which is an earth station using a micro antenna, according to a predetermined document ("Technical Standard Conformance Certification Wireless Equipment Characteristic Test Method" issued by the Institute for Radio Equipment Inspection and Certification). Third edition), March 1991
According to the month), the measuring instrument used is changed for each test item and each test item (for example, frequency deviation, occupied frequency bandwidth, spurious emission intensity, etc.) is measured.

[0003]

However, regarding a plurality of test items of the VSAT device, since the measuring instrument used is changed for each test item conforming to the technical standard as described above, human error at the time of connection change. This may cause loosening of the connection part or increase in contact resistance of the connection part, which causes a decrease in measurement accuracy. Further, since it is necessary to change the measuring instrument to be used, there is a problem that the conventional measurement takes time.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points,
It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic measuring device capable of measuring characteristics without changing the physical connection of measuring instruments.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has an object to be measured whose desired characteristics are measured, a coupler section for branching an output signal of the object to be measured, and a coupler section for branching the output signal. A converter for down-converting at least one of the signals, a plurality of measuring instruments each measuring a predetermined characteristic, and a coupler for the one measuring instrument corresponding to the characteristic to be measured among the plurality of measuring instruments. Switch means for selecting the other signal branched by the section or the signal from the converting means, and a control means for inputting a measurement signal to the DUT and controlling the switch means. It is a thing.

[0006]

In the present invention, a VSAT device is prepared as the object to be measured, the control means inputs the unmodulated wave signal to the VSAT device, and the signal from the coupler section at that time is switched by the switching means to perform the plurality of measurements. Antenna power can be measured by inputting to the first measuring instrument of the measuring instruments.

Further, the control means sequentially switches the signals from the coupler section and the converting means for each measurement frequency by the switch means and inputs the signals to the second measuring instrument, whereby the spurious measurement of the VSAT device can be performed. Furthermore, another measurement can be performed by inputting to another measuring device. Therefore, in the present invention, it is possible to eliminate the need to change the measuring instrument used.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the DUT 10 is an indoor unit (IDU) 11
_{1 to} 11 ₄ and outdoor unit (ODU) 12 _{1 to} 12 ₄
And four VSAT devices of the same type are provided in parallel. The coupler unit 20 has a configuration in which a receiving directional coupler 21 and a transmitting directional coupler 22 are connected in series, and an input signal is partially branched and input to an RF switch unit 50 described below.

The WG switch section 30 is a waveguide (WG) 3
1, 32 and 33, and the first waveguide 31 is
_One of the signals passed through the coupler unit 20 is selected from the DU11 ₁ and 11 ₂ , and the third waveguide 33 is connected to the IDU11.
₃ and 11 ₄ selects one of the signal passed through the coupler portion 20 from further second waveguide 32 is a waveguide 31 and 33
Select one of the signals from.

The mixer section 40 includes directional couplers 41, 43,
Coupling capacitor 42 and mixer 4 provided between them
It consists of 4 and 45. The signal branched by the directional coupler 41 is input to the mixer 44, and the signal branched by the directional coupler 43 is input to the mixer 45, and the frequency band is measurable, for example, up to about 22 GHz. Down convert.

The RF switch section 50 is switching-controlled by the control section 70 to select the signal from the coupler section 20 or the mixer section 40, and to select one of the three measuring instruments 61, 62 and 63 constituting the measuring section 60. input. The RF switch 50 as shown in FIG. 2, for example, are connected to one movable switch part 51 of the terminal 53 ₁ to 53 ₈ and 54 ₁ and 54 _2, and the movable switch portion 52 is the terminal 55
Is configured to be connected to either the _to 554 _3. Further, the movable switch parts 51 and 52 are connected.

The terminals 53 _{1 to} 53 ₈ are connected to the directional couplers 21 and 22 in the coupler section 20 of FIG.
4 ₁ and 54 ₂ are connected to the output terminals of the mixers 44 and 45 in the mixer section 40 of FIG. 1, and the terminals 55 _{1 to} 55 ₃ are connected to the input terminals of the measuring instruments 61 to 63 of FIG. There is. Switching of these movable switch parts 51 and 52 is performed by the control part 70 of FIG.

The measuring instruments 61 to 63 shown in FIG. 1 are measuring instruments for measuring predetermined test items, for example, the measuring instrument 61 is a power meter for measuring antenna power, and the measuring instrument 62 is a broadband spurious component. Measuring instrument for measuring
Reference numeral 3 is a measuring instrument capable of measuring the occupied frequency bandwidth and the frequency shift.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. First, the operation at the time of antenna power measurement will be described. At this time, the control unit 70 controls each IDU 11 _{1 of the} four VSAT devices.
-11 unmodulated wave (CW) signal and supplies at the measurement frequency to _4, coupler 20 and RF switch 50
The signal from the internal directional coupler 22 is switched to be input to the measuring device 61.

As a result, the broadband high-frequency signals extracted from the ODUs 12 _{1 to} 12 ₄ pass through the directional couplers 21 and 22 in the coupler section 20 to, for example, 18 GH.
The frequency components up to about z are input to the RF switch unit 50. Of these, as shown in FIG. 3, only the high frequency signal from the ODU 12 ₁ is selected by the RF switch unit 50 and input to the measuring device 61.

Therefore, first, the antenna power of the first VSAT device is measured by the measuring device 61. Thereafter, in the same manner as above, the control unit 70 controls the RF switch unit 50.
The signals from the ODUs 12 _{2 to} 12 ₄ are sequentially switched and input to the measuring device 61, and the antenna powers of the second, third and fourth VSAT devices are measured.

Next, the operation at the time of measuring the broadband spurious component will be described. In this case also the control unit 70, the four continuous wave to each IDU11 ₁ ~11 ₄ of VSAT device (C
W) Supply the signal at the measurement frequency. With this, OD
The broadband high-frequency signals (for example, 14 GHz signals) extracted from U12 _{1 to} 12 ₄ are input to the RF switch unit 50 through the directional couplers 21 and 22 in the coupler unit 20, for example, up to about 18 GHz. Meanwhile, it is input to the waveguide switch unit 30.

Waveguide 3 constituting the waveguide switch unit 30
1 to 33 are switching-controlled by the control of the control unit 70, and among the four high-frequency signals input in parallel through the directional couplers 21 and 22 in the coupler unit 20, one desired high-frequency signal is switched and output. And input to the mixer section 40.

The mixer section 40 splits an input high frequency signal into two by a directional coupler 41, one of which is input to a mixer 44 and the other of which is input to a directional coupler 43 through a coupling capacitor 42. The directional coupler 43 also splits the input high frequency signal into two,
One is input to the mixer 45, and the other is output to the subsequent stage.

The directional coupler 41 is characterized in that it can branch a signal in a band of a harmonic component (spurious component) of about 18 GHz to 26.5 GHz to be measured in the input high frequency signal, and the directional coupler 43. Is a characteristic capable of branching a signal in the band of the measured harmonic component (spurious component) of about 26.5 GHz or higher in the input high frequency signal. The mixers 44 and 45 down-convert the spurious components of these measurement frequency bands into bands that can be measured by the measuring device 62 described later.

The RF switch unit 50 operates so as to sequentially input the signals from the mixers 44 and 45 to the measuring device 62. Therefore, during the spurious measurement of the first VSAT device, as shown in FIG. 4, the wide band high frequency signal extracted from the ODU 12 ₁ is input to the RF switch unit 50 through the coupler unit 20 while the WG switch unit is input. RF switch unit 50 through 30 and mixer unit 40
Entered in.

At this time, the control unit 70 controls the switching of the RF switch unit 50 so that the signal from the coupler unit 20 and the signals in the respective measurement frequency bands from the converters 44 and 45 are sequentially input to the measuring device 62. The measuring device 62 has a configuration capable of measuring a spurious component (for example, a spectrum analyzer), and the first VSAT based on the above input signal.
Measure the spurious components of the device.

Thereafter, the output signals of the respective VSAT devices are switched by the WG switch section 30 in the same manner as described above, and during the spurious measurement of the fourth VSAT device, as shown in FIG. 5, the broadband extracted from the ODU 12 ₄ is used. While the high frequency signal of the above is input to the RF switch unit 50 through the coupler unit 20, the WG switch unit 30 and the mixer unit 40 are
Through the RF switch unit 50, and the signals from the RF switch unit 50 are sequentially input to the measuring device 62 to measure spurious components.

As described above, according to this embodiment, in both the antenna power measurement and the spurious measurement,
By electrically switching the signal path to the measuring instruments 61 to 63 without changing the physical connection of the measuring unit 60 at all, the test / measurement determined by the characteristic test method of the technical standard conformity certification wireless equipment. As a result, the accuracy is not reduced due to the change of the wire connection, and the measurement time can be shortened.

Moreover, in the present embodiment, it is of course possible to perform switching measurement of a plurality of test items of the same VSAT device, and also it is possible to automatically switch a plurality of VSAT devices to measure desired test items one after another. , Very efficient.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and it goes without saying that test items other than antenna power measurement and spurious measurement can be measured in the same manner.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since it is not necessary to change the physical connection of the measuring instrument to be used, it is possible to prevent a decrease in accuracy due to the change in connection, and it is possible to reduce the time required to measure multiple test items. Therefore, it is particularly suitable to be applied to the measurement of the test items of the VSAT device in which the measuring instruments used for a plurality of test items are different, and it is possible to measure the test items for a plurality of measured objects one after another, so that It is effective for measuring the DUT.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the RF switch unit of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a signal path at the time of antenna power measurement.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a signal path during spurious measurement.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing another example of a signal path during spurious measurement.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 DUT 11 ₁ to 11 ₄ Indoor Unit _(IDU) 12 1 ~12 ₄ Outdoor Unit (ODU) 20 coupler portion 30 WG switch parts 31 to 33 the waveguide 40 mixer 41 and 43 the directional coupler 44 and 45 Mixer 50 RF switch unit 60 Measuring unit 61-63 Measuring instrument 70 Control unit

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An object to be measured whose desired characteristic is measured, a coupler section for branching an output signal of the object to be measured, and a conversion means for down-converting at least one signal branched by the coupler section. A plurality of measuring devices each measuring a predetermined characteristic, and the other signal branched by the coupler unit or the converting means for one measuring device according to the characteristic to be measured among the plurality of measuring devices An automatic measuring apparatus, comprising: a switch unit for selecting a signal from the switch and a control unit for inputting a measurement signal to the object to be measured and controlling the switch unit. 2. The object to be measured is a plurality of VSAT devices, and the control means is configured to operate the plurality of VSAs during antenna power measurement.
An unmodulated wave signal is input to the T-apparatus, the other signal branched by the coupler section is sequentially selected by the switch means and input to the first measuring device, and the spurious measurement is not input to the plurality of VSAT apparatuses. While inputting the modulated wave signal, the switching means is controlled so that the other signal from the coupler section and the output signal of the converting means, which are input to the switching means, are sequentially input to the second measuring instrument. The conversion means down-converts the signals selected from the one of the signals branched by the coupler unit for each of a plurality of measurement frequencies into a frequency band suitable for measurement by the second measuring device, and switches the switch. The automatic measuring device according to claim 1, wherein the automatic measuring device is input to the means.