The card combines the advantages of 16-bit resolution, single-ended or differential input termination, four input ranges, programmable input offset and up to 64Msamples memory
Strategic Test has announced the UltraFast UX4540, which it says is industry's first 3U PXI card with two high-speed 16-bit vertical resolution digitiser channels.
With the release of this card, engineers and scientists can now acquire high dynamic range signals at rates to 1MS/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, four 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 two 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, 1MS/s maximum sampling rate, a 500kHz bandwidth, internal and external triggering and external clocking.
Each channel can be programmed with one of the four 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 50ohm or 1Mohm 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 digitiser cards, the UX4540 sampling rate can be programmed from 1kS/s to the 1MS/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 digitised data gap-free across the PXI bus to the PC host at up to 100Mbytes (50Msamples) per second.
There is an extensive list of available options.
