Evaluation Engineering - 10

INSTRUMENTATION

frequency ranges while still achieving
required accuracy specifications."

Per Vices' Cyan software-defined radio.

McGregor, Newark: "Key features regularly requested are a large touch screen, fast
data-processing speed, and an automated
test solution. Key attributes include frequency range, output power, phase noise,
harmonics, and switching frequency."
Armstrong, RIGOL Technologies: "Due
to design requirements, engineers are
always asking for expanded power envelopes and additional signal modulations.
The ability to generate custom IQ modulation patterns is especially important to
customers in early product and technology development."
Fairbanks, Astronics Test Systems:
"Generally speaking, we are being driven
to provide more complex generation capability, on more channels, in the smallest
package possible. Customers' needs for
increasingly complex waveform generation have also driven us to provide native
software tools to assist in solving these
problems. Signal generators nowadays
can't just provide raw signal generation-
customers are demanding a full-featured
application software set to accompany
the hardware."

Picotest's PerfectPulse
J2151A fast pulse edge
generator and TDR solution.

10

EVALUATION ENGINEERING NOVEMBER 2019

Now on the market
What signal generator solutions (including accessories) have come on the market
recently, and what are their key features?
Sandler, Picotest: "A few years ago we
introduced a fast pulse edge generator-PerfectPulse-in a USB stick. It
supported harmonic comb and TDR solutions up to about 1 GHz. Last year we
introduced a 32-ps version, also in a USB
stick. Customers also need to connect the
generators to their circuit boards, which
often are not connectorized and frequently don't have fine-pitch launch pads. We
are developing high-bandwidth probes to
accommodate the requirements. Even 5
GHz in a 50-Ω probe is tough to achieve
with 2.5-mm, 4-mm, or variable pitch
required by many applications."

Malatest, Per Vices: "Our latest release,
Cyan, is a SDR that offers all of the key
features demanded by the signal-generator market. It offers operation from near
DC to 18 GHz with up to 16 independent,
phase-coherent, radio chains each having 1-GHz sampling bandwidth. The unit
features a Stratix 10 SoC FPGA with the
ability to meet very aggressive channelmasking requirements."
Spectrum Instrumentation's DN2.65x
series general purpose multi-channel arbitrary
waveform generator.

Rovini, Spectrum Instrumentation: "This
year, Spectrum introduced the M2p.65xx
and DN2.65x Series. These are generalpurpose multichannel AWGs that cover
the frequency range up to 60 MHz available with up 16 channels on an LXI-device
and up to eight channels in a single
PCIe card. Following the modular
design concept, there are in total
eight different models for PCIe with
one to eight channels and six different variants for LXI/Ethnernet
with four to 16 channels. These series
will be extended by end of 2019 by even
more models with more channels and
higher output levels."
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Evaluation Engineering

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