Digitiser revolutionises dynamic measurements

Design and test engineers can now use a single modular instrument to make a wide range of dynamic measurements with the new National Instruments flexible resolution digitiser.

Design and test engineers can now use a single modular instrument to make a wide range of dynamic measurements with the new National Instruments flexible resolution digitiser.

Just as the digital multimeter brought universal measurement capability to DC measurements, the NI PXI-5922 flexible resolution digitiser revolutionises dynamic measurements with a universal measurement device.

Engineers can combine the module with NI LabView 7.1 to create numerous types of instruments, such as AC voltmeters, audio analysers, frequency counters, spectrum analysers or I/Q modulation analysers, that often exceed the measurement performance of high-end traditional instruments with similar functionality.

"Virtual instrumentation redefined how test and measurement systems were built", said Dr James Truchard, NI President and CEO.

"The NI PXI-5922 flexible resolution digitiser redefines how the hardware for virtual instrumentation is built by providing a device that spans many different applications".

"The module ensures error-free measurements for the broadest set of applications of any digitiser and takes us a long way toward our goal of a universal instrument measurement platform".

Unlike traditional measurement devices that have a fixed resolution for all sample rates, the NI PXI-5922 digitiser uses the NI FlexII ADC that has flexible resolution and can sample anywhere from 16bit at 15Msample/s to 24bit at 500Ksample/s.

The NI FlexII ADC incorporates patented NI methods for reducing the linearity and temperature drift errors inherent to multibit sigma-delta convertors to achieve unprecedented dynamic range at high sample rates.

With the module's large dynamic range and low noise, design and test engineers can directly digitise low-level signals without the need for external signal conditioning, such as filters and low-noise amplifiers.

Reduced signal conditioning improves measurement accuracy and reliability while also saving test system development time.

The combination of measurement flexibility and high dynamic range make the NI PXI-5922 module ideal for a wide range of applications.

With performance exceeding the best commercially available ADCs, for example, engineers can use the module to characterise and test the latest DACs.

For precision audio applications, the digitiser's unparalleled ability to acquire signals with 24bit resolution at up to 500Ksample/s means engineers can capture high-order harmonics with wide dynamic range.

The module's 18bit resolution at 10Msample/s makes it an excellent digitiser for acquiring baseband I/Q signals used in digital communications systems.

The NI PXI-5922 module is built on the synchronisation and memory core (SMC) architecture for tight synchronisation with other SMC-based products such as high-speed digitisers, arbitrary waveform generators and digital waveform generator/analysers.

This gives the module multiple instrument synchronisation with module-to-module skew of less than 1ns typical; deep, flexible onboard memory up to 256Mbyte per channel; and high-speed data streaming.

Engineers can use the module to create mixed-signal stimulus response measurements or to expand the number of acquisition channels up to 1632 channels by synchronising multiple NI PXI-5922 modules.

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