Spectrum GmbH has released a range of high-speed 14 and 16 bit LXI-based digitizer products for applications where multiple electronic signals need to be acquired and analyzed. Extending the company’s digitizerNETBOX family, the DN6.44x series comprises twelve new instruments with up to 24 fully synchronized channels.

The 16 bit ADC models offer sampling rates of 130 MS/s or 250 MS/s, while the 14 bit units feature sampling rates of 500 MS/s. The high channel density makes the instruments suitable for applications where arrays of receivers, sensors, detectors, rectifiers, antennas and other electronic devices are to be used and tested.

To ensure all models deliver excellent cross channel timing capability with minimal phase error, the ADCs on each channel are clocked synchronously. Each channel is also equipped with its own front-end amplifier that features six input ranges (from ±200 mV up to ±10 V full scale), switchable input impedance (50 Ω and 1 MΩ) and programmable positive input offset for unipolar signals. The analog bandwidth is as high as 250 MHz (for 500 MS/s models) enabling the units to capture electronic signals in the DC to 200 MHz frequency range.

Each DN6.44x instrument is equipped with a large on-board acquisition memory of 512 MSamples per channel and advanced trigger circuitry to allow the capture of the widest range of input signals. Each channel as well as two external inputs can act as a trigger source with the capability of combining all sources by AND/OR logic function.

The different acquisition modes, which include single shot (Transient Recording), streaming (FIFO), segmented (Multiple Recording), gated (Gated Sampling) or a combination of segmented and slow chart recorder operation (ABA mode), can be combined with internal trigger time stamping.

The units feature an industrial chassis with integrated cooling, a replaceable dust filter and low noise power supplies. Front-panel SMA connectors are used for the channel inputs, external clock and external triggering, while LED lights provide a visual indication for the power, trigger and LAN status.

Based on the LXI instrumentation standard (following the LXI Device Specification 2011 rev. 1.4), the digitizerNETBOX products are also designed for automated testing and remote applications. Full remote control is achieved through a simple GBit Ethernet port, which allows connection to any PC or local area network (LAN).

The instruments are fully self-contained and come with all the tools necessary to capture, digitize and analyze waveforms. Simply connect the unit to a host computer and start up Spectrum's SBench 6-Pro, standard with every unit.

This software enables the user to control all the operating modes and hardware settings from one simple, easy-to-use, graphical user interface and has a host of built-in features for waveform display, data analysis and documentation. Acquired and analyzed waveforms can be stored and exported to other devices or other software programs, in a variety of formats such as MATLAB, ASCII, binary and wave.

Included drivers allow users to write their own control programs using many popular programming languages, including C++, Visual Basic, VB.NET, C#, J#, Delphi, IVI, Java and Python code. Third party software support is also provided for LabVIEW, LabWindows and MATLAB.