Spectrum has announced the release of three new M4i series arbitrary waveform generators (AWG), which set a new standard for speed and accuracy. The new models of the M4i.66xx series provide one, two and four channels, each of which can output electronic signals at a rate of up to 625 megasamples / second (MS / s) and has a 16-bit vertical resolution. The company says this combination makes these new AWGs ideal for generating high-frequency signals up to 200MHz with the highest possible accuracy and fidelity.
The frequency range and dynamic performance of the instrument make it an interest for engineers and scientists in the fields of communications, radio, radar, semiconductors, nanotechnology, media testing, automation, ultrasound, optics, medicine, and biological sciences.
The product is based on Spectrum's proven M4i series PCI Express (PCIe) platform, which is much smaller than traditional instruments and can be used in most modern PCs. Simply install the AWG card into a free PCIe x8 or x16 slot, install the driver, load the Spectrum software and start generating waveforms. The AWG is fully programmable and can be used with Spectrum's own Sbench 6 control software and third-party software tools (such as LabVIEW, LabWindows, and MATLAB).
To allow the generation of long and complex waveforms, the AWG includes a large amount of 2 GSamples of onboard memory and multiple operating modes such as Single-Shot, Loop, FIFO, Gating, and Sequence Replay. Sequence replay mode allows different waveform segments to be stored in memory and connected and cycled in sequence. In addition, users can switch between stored waveforms through software commands or overload waveforms at runtime.
In FIFO mode, these cards use an ultra-fast PCIe x8 Gen2 interface to continuously stream data from PC memory to AWG at speeds exceeding 1.5 GB / s. If two or four channels are used, the outputs will be fully synchronized and share a common clock to ensure minimum phase error. If more channels are needed, up to 8 cards can be connected to Spectrum ’s Star-Hub clock and trigger system. Star-Hub can create up to 32 fully synchronized instruments.
The AWG is designed to output a signal that simulates a signal in the real world, and can convert a programmable output level of ± 200mV to ± 5V into high impedance (for a 50ohm termination, the output is ± 100mV to ± 2.5V). By using 16-bit digital-to-analog conversion, AWG can also generate fine signal details. They have excellent dynamic performance in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR).
In addition, each channel uses a precision phase-locked loop (PLL) control system to provide the clock, which can be generated internally or from an external clock or reference source. The flexibility of AWG is further enhanced by the front panel multi-function I / O connector, which allows access to asynchronous and synchronous digital outputs (tag outputs), asynchronous digital inputs, trigger outputs, running and arming status, and D / A sampling clock.
Users who want to use their own software to control the AWG can use the mature Spectrum driver (for Windows and Linux) included with the product. The driver interface of the new M4i.66xx series is 100% compatible with the old and slower M2i.60xx AWG series. The company stated that a set of standard programming examples illustrates the main signal generation functions, and provides information on Visual C ++, Borland C ++, Gnu C ++, LabVIEW, Visual Basic, VB.NET, C #, J #, Python and Delphi code support.
