Digitiser is designed for measurements of low-level noise

9th June 2015

SP Devices

Siobhan O'Gorman

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A dual-channel, 14-bit, 400 MS/s digitiser optimised for excellent noise performance has been introduced by SP Devices. Alongside a low-noise DC-coupled analogue front-end with high dynamic range, the ADQ214-DCLN features on-board real-time decimation which effectively increases the resolution of the digitiser and allows for detailed and highly accurate study of lower frequency signals without the need of capturing massive amounts of data.

The device is designed particularly for measurements of low-level noise in the frequency range from very low frequencies, below 0.1Hz, up to 100MHz. This is enabled by the low noise DC-coupled front-end which has exemplary noise performance both in terms of 1/f noise and wideband noise. The digitiser is essentially free of spurious distortion, making it the suitable for high-performance testing.

The ADQ214-DCLN is available in USB and PXI Express form factors and occupies a single slot in an 3U cPCIe/PXIe chassis. The device can either be used with chassis and controllers from major vendors or with custom backplanes provided through SP Devices' design services.

A SDK is included free of charge with the digitiser and can be used both under Windows and Linux. The on-board Xilinx FPGA is available to the end user through the optional ADQ development kit.

This device is suitable for phase noise measurement in lab environments as well as automated test equipment but also for other types of wideband analysis of weak signals such as for example power supply line analysis. The plot below shows the unprecedented idle channel noise level of the ADQ214-DCLN.