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New 500 MS/s 12-bit digitizer PCI cards from Strategic Test record up to 5 seconds

1st September 2009

Strategic Test

ES Admin

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Datasheet

Strategic Test Corp. has announced two new 500 MS/s 12-bit digitizer cards for the PCI bus. The UF3-3242 has 2 analog inputs and can sample at 500 MS/s on one channel or 250 MS/s on both channels simultaneously, while the UF3-3240 is a single-channel card that samples at up to 500 MS/s. Both cards are supplied with 128 MSamples (256 MByte) onboard memory which is unique at this speed/resolution segment. The memory can be expanded to 2 GSamples giving a measurement time of up to 5 seconds on one channel at 500 MS/s. PCI Express versions of the cards will be released later this year.

Measured dynamic specifications at 500 MS/s are a Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of up to 63.1 dB and an effective Number of Bits (ENOB) value of 10.2 LSB. At 250 MS/s the SNR is up to 63.8 dB and an ENOB of 10.3 LSB.

These cards are part of the new UF3 Series, which is based on a totally new baseboard design. The UF3 Series features 5 multi-purpose connectors routed to the clock input, trigger input, trigger output and 2 freely programmable I/O connections. A unique feature on the two digital I/O lines allows them to be programmed as digital inputs that are synchronous with the analog channels or as synchronous digital I/O lines used to control external equipment or receive status signals, or as additional trigger inputs that can be AND/OR with the main external trigger input.

“Speed, resolution and longer recording times is what our customers tell us they want. The new UF3-324x cards deliver a combination of speed, resolution and memory depth that can’t be found in other manufacturers’ products”, commented Bob Giblett, president of Strategic Test. “Comparison with other products on the market will show that the UF3 series not only have higher performance or capability, but also offer the lowest cost”.

Each channel includes its own ADC for simultaneous sampling without phase errors. There are two user-selectable input paths per channel on the card. The first path has 6 input ranges from ±200 mV to ±10 V and a choice of 50 Ohm or 1 MOhm input impedances. The second path delivers a bandwidth of >200 MHz, has 4 input ranges from ±500 mV to ±5 V and has 50 Ohm impedance. The new front-end module allows AC or DC coupling, and includes a user-activated low-pass filter.

Like all UltraFast boards, the UF3-324x scope cards can be customized with hardware options to best match the application:

§ Onboard memory: 128, 256, 512, 1024 or 2048 mega samples

§ Multiple Recording: memory segmentation

§ TimeBase: records time of trigger events

§ Star Hub: synchronization of up to 8 boards. Can be used with Digitizer, AWG and Digital I/O boards to create mixed-mode systems

§ BaseXIO: adds 8 asynchronous digital I/O lines

Drivers and programming examples for Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, XP64, XP and Linux (RedHat, Fedora, SuSe, Sarge) are supplied with the card, as well as the SBench 6.0 oscilloscope program. SDK’s for MATLAB, LabVIEW and LabWindows/CVI are available as options.