The Agilent N5508A programmable microwave source is a half-rack-width System II unit that ouputs a signal between 2.4 GHz and 26.4 GHz in 600 MHz steps. The signals are output at levels from 0 dBm up to +16 dBm (+10 dBm above 7.2 GHz).
The signal is derived from a 600 MHz oscillator which either free-runs or is phase-locked to a reference chain. The reference chain consists of a 100 MHz oscillator, which can be the reference or it can be phased-locked to a 10 MHz crystal controlled reference. A voltage applied to the VOLTAGE CONTROL connector can tune the reference chain.
A step-recovery-diode multiplies the 600 MHz and a YIG-tuned-filter (YTF) picks off the desired frequency. The output of the YTF is amplified by a gain adjustable amplifier. This amplifier has two operating modes. One mode is for minimum noise, and the other lowers high order harmonics.
