Focus Microwaves
Focus Microwaves is a pioneering engineering company, built around the innovations of its founder Dr. Christos Tsironis who developed his first manual tuner in 1973 and is the inventor of most existing electro-mechanical tuner families. The success of Focus is based on the engineering and manufacturing skills of its highly motivated and experienced team of engineers and technicians, who have been trained and encouraged to develop new technologies. In addition, listening to our customers needs and insights helps us discover and develop new and measurement methods on an ongoing basis, relentlessly pushing the limits of what is possible.
From humble beginnings in 1988, Focus has become the main supplier of advanced Load Pull and Noise Tuner Systems. Our mission is to provide effective, reliable and innovative solutions for non-50 Ohm testing (Noise and Load Pull) of RF microwave transistors, thus enabling our customers to compete in the marketplace with better designs and to advance the understanding and knowledge of the field.
Contact Details
Focus Microwaves Inc. Main Head Office
4555 Chem. du Bois-Franc, Saint-Laurent, QC H4S 1A8, Canada
Phone: +1-514-684-4554
Test & Measurement
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Products
Bias tees with a perfect balance of RF performance and DC power handling
Auriga’s Bias Tees balance impressive RF performance with heavy-duty power handling across multiple frequency bands ranging from 100 MHz to 67 GHz. They are designed for rigorous usage without sacrificing RF performance. Only the highest-quality materials are used to minimize signal loss and enable efficient heat removal.
Introducing Auriga’s 5th generation pulsed IV/RF characterization system delivers unparalleled performance, capturing measurements with incredible speed and accuracy. Pulsed IV (current-voltage) measurements have emerged as the preferred method of capturing current-voltage characteristics of active devices such as field effect (FETs) and bipolar junction (BJTs) transistors. With the growing popularity of higher-power devices, like GaN HEMTs, LDMOS, SiC, and graphene, current and voltage requirements are constantly being pushed higher and higher.
Non-linear measurement data is often used to create a behavioral model for high frequency components. Formulations of these models have been defined in terms of traveling waves, with a desire to represent nonlinear behavior of high frequency transistors through a direct extension from linear s-parameters.
The Mesuro model portfolio is comprised of two variations of a behavioral model – each targeted at a particular end use – Cardiff Model Lite (CML), where the desired output is a local model, and Cardiff Model+ (CM+), which incorporates higher order mixing terms allowing a single model to fit over a range of impedance space.
The Focus Compact Model (FCM) utility is a streamlined software package designed to be used with Focus’ AURIGA high-end Pulsed-IV system, that is used to generate Compact Models for transistors from their Pulsed-IV and wideband pulsed s-parameter data.
This is achieved by generating a network of lumped circuit elements that represent accurately the fundamental linear & non-linear behavior of the device over a broad range of bias and power range.
The result of the modeling is a netlist and compatible with- the most common CAD tools used in RF Design; such as AWR Microwave office (MWO) and Keysight PathWave Advanced Design System (ADS).
The low frequency tuners are a unique product technology using MPT algorithms for low frequency wideband tuning. Three or more cascaded tuning sections use series transmission cables and parallel rotary capacitors.
The length of the cables and number of tuning sections are optimized for maximum tuning range over a given bandwidth. HLFT tuners use 6 tuning sections allowing second harmonic frequency tuning.
Focus offers a complete range of manual tuners. The MMT series use the same RF technology and precision as a comparable automatic tuner.
They are available in octave and multi-octave bands between 400 MHz and 18 GHz and provide high VSWR at DUT reference plane with a high reliability.
For harmonic tuning requirements, the MMT series can be enhanced, referring to as option –H2 and –H23, using a similar concept as Focus’ harmonic rejection tuners (PHT).
For more information on Automated Tuners, Click here!
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High power capability: +/- 200V, 17A.
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Minimum pulse width: 200ns.
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Modular design which enables multiple configurations.
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Shared library. The MPIV can be used as a standalone instrument using an ActiveX library, which easily integrates into existing test software.
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Flexible Input/Output. Choose between high power and high precision pulse modules to create a customized setup for your specific application.
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Compatible with Focus Microwaves’ device characterization software (Load Pull Explorer, LPEx)
Noise measurements allow the determination of the four Noise Parameters of a device (transistor). Focus’ Noise Modules integrate well with various third party noise receivers.
Noise Parameters: These are four numbers that fully describe the noise behaviour of an active or passive device (twoport) at a given frequency. For practical reasons we use the following quantities as Noise Parameters:
Focus’ noise parameter extraction routines leverage the PNA-X’s unique implementation
of the cold-source noise figure measurement technique. This specific technique requires a noise source to determine the kBG (gain-bandwidth constant) of the system and a passive mechanical tuner is used to characterize the noise receiver across both the impedance and frequency space. This step is imperative to obtain fully vector-source-corrected measurements.
of the cold-source noise figure measurement technique. This specific technique requires a noise source to determine the kBG (gain-bandwidth constant) of the system and a passive mechanical tuner is used to characterize the noise receiver across both the impedance and frequency space. This step is imperative to obtain fully vector-source-corrected measurements.
A RF down conversion stage might be required if the frequency of noise measured exceeds the receiver’s bandwidth. Focus offers noise modules which support down conversion for optimal speed and performance.