Anritsu corporation’s new modular RF hardware 0.4-7.125 GHz enhanced RF Module MT8000A-033 upgrades the radio communication test station MT8000A.

With its built-in RF transceiver (up to 16 Tx and 8 Rx), it supports carrier aggregation over four bands for 5G 4x4 MIMO SA and new radio dual connectivity (NR-DC), which combines FR1 and FR2 component carriers to achieve higher bandwidth. In addition, as an industry first, one measurement instrument now supports the various required R&D testing, including increasingly complex uplink tests.

As well as covering the FR1 band, the MT8000A platform with this new RF module also covers future NR-U and licensed 6-GHz bands for flexible testing of various frequency-band combinations to improve test efficiency and optimise R&D capital investment.

The all-in-one MT8000A platform supports RF tests, protocol tests, application tests, and beam verification and characterisation tests. In addition to supporting the NSA and SA base station simulation functions required for development of 5G chipsets and user equipment, it supports all frequency bands operated for 5G services, from the FR1 frequencies (600 MHz, 2.5 GHz, 3.5 GHz, 4.5 GHz, and the unlicensed 6-GHz band) to the FR2 frequencies (24, 28, 39, and 43 GHz).

Moreover, it also supports the latest 3GPP Release 16 technology, as well as features such as 4x4 MIMO in FR1, and 8CC and 256QAM in FR2, which are in high demand for high-speed broadband communication.

In addition, the MT8000A has a user interface with excellent operability, including software for setting various test parameters. The many versatile measurement-module configurations support a flexible and efficient test environment that can be tailored to customers’ future testing needs.