At EuMW 2026, everything RF met engineers from Mini-Circuits, who presented the company’s latest RF test and amplifier solutions. At its booth, the company demonstrated an integrated RF test setup featuring signal generators, mechanical switches, and power sensors, along with its newly introduced Mini Bench software for RF power measurements. The company also showcased the ZVA-183G-S+ wideband medium-power linear amplifier, demonstrating its performance with a 256-QAM modulated signal at Ku-band frequencies.
European Microwave Week (EuMW) 2026, held from 4-9 October in London, is Europe’s premier event for the RF, microwave, mmWave, and radar industries, bringing together companies, researchers, and engineers to showcase the latest developments in high-frequency technology.
Mini Bench Software for RF Power Sensor Measurements
Lee Whiting, Product Manager for Mini-Circuits Test Solutions, demonstrated the Mini Bench software, a measurement and analysis platform that serves as the central software interface for the company’s RF power sensors. The platform combines instrument control, real-time measurement displays, and waveform analysis tools in a single environment, allowing engineers to configure sensors, monitor RF signals, and investigate measurement results without switching between multiple applications. During the demonstration, Lee used Mini Bench with the company’s 18 GHz peak and average power sensor to evaluate the characteristics of a pulse-modulated RF signal.
As the signal was measured, Mini Bench displayed key parameters including average power, peak power, pulse width, and pulse period while simultaneously plotting the pulse modulation profile. This combination of numerical measurements and graphical waveform displays allows engineers to see not only the measured values themselves but also how the signal behaves over time, making it easier to identify and analyze pulse characteristics.
The demonstration also highlighted the software’s waveform analysis capabilities. Using marker and delta-marker tools, Lee measured pulse characteristics directly from the displayed waveform, including rise time, fall time, and pulse width. He then used the zoom function to focus on a specific portion of the pulse, allowing the rise-time behavior to be examined in greater detail. These features enable users to move from high-level measurements to detailed waveform analysis within the same workspace.
Multi-Sensor Support and Customizable Measurement Displays
Lee also demonstrated how Mini Bench can support multiple RF power sensors within a single interface, enabling measurements from several sensors to be viewed and compared simultaneously. The software provides a customizable workspace where measurement windows can be rearranged, resized, and organized according to user requirements, while display colors and measurement parameters can be modified to improve data visibility and workflow efficiency.
Mini-Circuits is initially introducing Mini Bench for its RF power sensors, with plans to expand the platform to additional test instruments including signal generators and frequency counters. The long-term goal is to create a unified software environment across the company’s test solutions portfolio, allowing engineers to control instruments, collect measurement data, and analyze results through a common interface rather than separate software packages for individual products. Click here to learn more about the Mini Bench Software.
Alongside the software demonstration, the company’s bench showcased how its RF test building blocks can be combined into a complete measurement setup. The system presented at EuMW incorporated signal generation, mechanical switching for signal routing, and power measurement capabilities. Using this arrangement, engineers can perform multiple RF measurements, including determining the gain and P1dB of an amplifier and measuring the insertion loss of a bandpass filter. The demonstration showed how these individual instruments can work together as part of a broader RF test solution.
ZV183G+ Wideband Medium-Power Linear Amplifier Demonstration
Daniel Ford, Product Line Engineering Manager for the High Frequency Module Group, showcased the ZV1-83G-S+, a low-noise, medium-power linear amplifier that operates from 500 MHz to 18 GHz. Designed for applications requiring the amplification of digitally modulated RF signals with minimal distortion, the amplifier is intended for test, communications, and other high-frequency systems where signal integrity and linearity are critical.
To demonstrate its performance, Ford drove the amplifier with a 256-QAM signal at Ku-band frequencies and a symbol rate of 500 MSymbols/s. The test setup displayed both the main-channel signal power and adjacent-channel power levels, allowing the amplifier’s linearity to be evaluated as the output power was progressively increased. By monitoring adjacent-channel leakage while raising the amplifier’s output power, the demonstration showed how the device performs under realistic modulated-signal operating conditions rather than simple continuous-wave measurements.ZV183G-S+, Linear Amplifier
Ford gradually increased the output power to observe the impact on adjacent-channel leakage, including conditions where the output power level was doubled. The measurements showed that the amplifier maintained linear operation as output power increased, preserving signal quality even while operating near its compression region. A key result was observed as the amplifier approached its 1 dB compression point (P1dB), the operating level where amplifier gain begins to compress and distortion generally increases. Even immediately below P1dB, the ZVA-183G-S+ maintained adjacent-channel power leakage better than -36 dBc while amplifying the 256-QAM signal. This demonstrated the amplifier’s ability to deliver high output power while limiting unwanted energy in neighboring channels, an important requirement for high-data-rate communication systems that rely on complex modulation schemes.
Rather than focusing solely on gain or output power specifications, the demonstration highlighted the amplifier’s linearity performance under demanding modulated-signal conditions. By tracking both the desired signal and adjacent-channel leakage as the amplifier approached compression, Mini-Circuits illustrated how the ZVA-183G-S+ can support high-order modulation formats while maintaining signal fidelity.
At EuMW 2026, Mini-Circuits showcased both its RF test hardware and its ongoing development of measurement software. While the integrated test setup demonstrated the use of the company’s signal generators, switches, and sensors for RF component characterization, the introduction of Mini Bench highlighted its plans to provide a unified software environment for controlling and analyzing measurements across its test instrument portfolio.
European Microwave Week 2026 showcased the latest developments in wireless communications, aerospace and defense, radar, satellite technology, semiconductors, antennas, and test and measurement solutions. From cutting-edge mmWave and terahertz technologies to advanced RF design and testing tools, the event highlighted many of the innovations shaping the next generation of high-frequency systems. To discover more technologies, product launches, and demonstrations from across the exhibition floor, click here to view everything RF’s complete EuMW 2026 coverage.
Click here to learn more about Mini-Circuits and its RF solutions.