1-μHz to 240-MHz generator produces precision pulses, 14-bit arbitrary waveforms, and more

摘要

Design and test engineers are under increasing pressure to quickly bring high-quality products to market and differentiate those products from their competition. Achieving these objectives requires new test protocols and new classes of instruments, says Alois Hauk, vice president and general manager of digital-photonic test at Agilent Technologies, which has introduced what the company calls the industry's first generator to combine superior signal quality with the ability to produce such a wide variety of waveforms over such a broad frequency range. The 81150A pulse/function/arbitrary-waveformoise generator employs a 512k-sample/channel arbitrary-waveform memory and a 14-bit DAC that operates as fast as 2G samples/sec. The generator can produce signals with repetition rates as low as 1 μHz with modulation at frequencies as high as 10 MHz. The unit, which produces many waveforms greater than 100 MHz and sine waves to 240 MHz, suits use in general-purpose bench tests and advanced serial-data stress tests.