Application Note: Fundamentals of Real-Time Spectrum Analysis

RF signals are becoming more complex and time varying in nature, so, it is crucial for today's engineers and scientists to be able to reliably detect and characterize RF signals that change over time. Something not easily done with traditional measurement tools.

To address this problem, Tektronix has designed a Real-Time Spectrum Analyzer (RTSA), an instrument that can trigger on RF signals, seamlessly capture them into memory, and analyze them in the frequency, time, and modulation domains. This primer has been written to describe how the RTSA works and provide a basic understanding of how it can be used to solve many measurement problems associated with capturing and analyzing modern RF signals.