Search by company

First 1MS/s 16-bit Digitizer PXI Module 89dB SNR

Edited by the Manufacturingtalk editorial team Jun 14, 2004

The UX4540 provides two input channels, each with a 16-bit A/D for true simultaneous sampling, 1 MS/s maximum sampling rate, a 500 kHz bandwidth, internal and external triggering and external clocking

Strategic Test Corporation has launched UltraFast UX4540, a 3U PXI card with two high-speed 16-bit vertical resolution digitizer channels.

With the release of this card, engineers and scientists can now acquire high dynamic range signals at rates to 1 MS/s.

Typical applications include medical research, mechanical engineering, shock wave testing, explosion tests, imaging, non-destructive testing, acoustic emissions, CCD testing, vibration analysis, laser diode characterization and impact testing.

The card combines the advantages of 16-bit resolution, single-ended or differential input termination, 4 input ranges, programmable input offset and up to 64 MSamples memory.

"Our mechanical engineering and bio-medical research customers in particular, have been asking for a high performance card that allowed them to measure high dynamic range signals", stated Bob Giblett, President of Strategic Test.

"The design team created a card that not only packs 2 channels in a 3U form factor, but also managed to achieve a 89 dB SNR, SFDR of -89dB and an ENOB figure of 14 bits." The UX4540 provides two input channels, each with a 16-bit A/D for true simultaneous sampling, 1 MS/s maximum sampling rate, a 500 kHz bandwidth, internal and external triggering and external clocking.

Each channel can be programmed with one of the 4 input ranges +/- 1V to +/- 10V and the input signal can also be offset adjusted by up to 100% of each range.

Together with the programmable single-ended or differential input termination, AC/DC coupling and a choice of 50 Ohm or 1 MOhm impedances, the user is able to configure each channel so that it is optimised for each signal source.

Like all of the UltraFast PXI, PCI and CompactPCI Digitizer cards, the UX4540 sampling rate can be programmed from 1kS/s to the 1 MS/s maximum rate when using either the onboard clock, or when using an external clock signal - a feature often used to synchronize the card to external equipment.

In either case, the user is free to specify any sample rate within these ranges and the software driver will automatically adjust the onboard clock signal hardware divider and PLL to obtain the closest possible match.

As many digitizer cards limit the available sampling rate to a few pre-selected ranges, Strategic Test has created an Application Note (AN_01 Sampling Rate Determination) that describes its technology in greater detail.

This can be downloaded from the company's website.

The UX4540 can record signals to onboard memory or continuously transfer the digitized data gap-free across the PXI bus to the PC host at up to 100 Mbytes (50 MSamples) per second.

There is an extensive list of available options.

Apart from expanding the on-board memory from the standard 8 MSamples up to 64 MSamples in various increments, there is the Multiple Recording option for recording a series of waveforms at very high speed (over 20,000 per second are possible), Gated Sampling that starts and stops the recording when an external TTL signal changes level and a high-speed Digital Inputs option that allows 16 TTL or CMOS level signals to be acquired at the same speed as the A/D's, a feature often used to record high-speed events or status information from other equipment.

Software drivers for Windows XP, 2000, NT, ME, 98 and Linux are supplied, while drivers for MATLAB, LabVIEW, Agilent's-VEE and DASYLab are available as cost-options.

Strategic Test also includes its SBench measurement/oscilloscopes program running under Microsoft Windows.

This supports all of the UX3131's features.

Signals can be recorded and displayed graphically then cursors used to make graphical analysis such as measuring peak values.

Statistical calculations and FFT's can be performed on the data.

More sophisticated analysis can be performed created using third-party programs, such as MATLAB by exporting the signal data as ASCII/Text files.

The UltraFast UX4540 with 8 MSamples memory costs $6034, with 16 MSamples $6958, 32 MSamples $8029, 64 MSamples $9254.

Prices are based on the current Euro/US$ exchange rate.

OEM prices are available on request.