Waveform generators enhance signal measurement accuracy

The waveform generators provide the lowest jitter (less than 1 ps jitter, or 200x better than previous generation Direct Digital Synthesis generators) and lowest total harmonic distortion in their class, giving engineers the ability to generate the exact signals they need. Better jitter performance means that technicians and engineers can place edges more accurately, which helps them reduce timing errors in their circuit designs.

With total harmonic distortion less than 0.03 percent and non-harmonic spurs below -75 dBc, the 33600A Series offers clean signals that don’t introduce noise, enabling users to get more accurate results.

The 33600A Series’ very low jitter and 3-ns rise and fall times also allow users to set trigger points more accurately. A low voltage range, 1 mV_pp, enables them to make output changes down to 1 µV—a critical capability when testing today’s low-voltage circuits and designs.

As an added benefit, 33600A Series users can take advantage of easy software upgrades to expand their instruments’ capabilities, such as when they need to increase memory to 64 MSa or bandwidth to 120 MHz, for example. They can even upgrade their instruments to NISPOM file security.

While traditionally DDS has been the waveform-generation technology of choice, its limitations mean users often have to work around its compromised performance or spend up to five times more for a high-end waveform generator. Agilent says that its Trueform technology eliminates these challenges by combining the best of DDS with a point-per-clock architecture. When used in the 33600A Series, the results are a range of capabilities not normally found on waveform generators in this class.

These include

* Waveform summing and combining for easily adding noise to signals for margin and distortion testing using only a single channel. On the two-channel 33600A Series model users can sum and combine up to four signals

* Variable-bandwidth noise for adjusting the bandwidth of the built-in noise generator to control a signal’s frequency content

* Waveform sequencing for creating multiple configured waveforms with several common segments and building long, complex waveforms using minimal instrument memory

* Pseudo-Random Binary Sequence (PRBS) pattern generation for testing digital serial buses by streaming standard PRBS patterns–with PN3 to PN32–without a separate pulse generator