Ultraview debuts 14-bit 16-concurrent-channel 65-MS/s A/D board
Berkeley, CA. Ultraview Corp., a maker of high-speed data acquisition boards since 1989, has announced its AD14-65Mx16AVE, a 14-bit 16-concurrent-channel 65-MS/s A/D board for demanding large-system OEM uses, where signals on multiple time-aligned channels need to be observed with high SNR, such as radar, imaging, nuclear instrumentation, ultrasound, spectroscopy, communications systems, and multiport RF component and antenna testing.
Two on-board low-jitter RF synthesizers allow any A/D sampling rate between 20 and 65 MS/s to be specified, while simultaneously outputting four stimulus clocks of a second frequency on SMA connectors that can be vectored to any combination of four external transmitters, 16 microwave pulse generators, laser modulators, or other devices.
A special array-radar-optimized version, the AD14-65Mx16AVESTIM has sixteen 20-pin ZIF connectors that can accommodate a variety of front-end analog modules, such as transceivers, samplers, pulsed radar front ends, and nuclear signal conditioners. Each ZIF connector supplies an on-board-generated differential PECL sampling clock, a separately settable differential Tx/pulser clock, +12- to +15-V and -4- to -12-V power, and differential inputs to a dedicated internal A/D channel.
Based on a hardware averaging engine with near-zero dead-time, implemented in the board’s Xilinx Zynq7000, the AD14-65Mx16AVE can record concurrent time-aligned single shot (nonaveraged) waveforms on each of up to 16 concurrent channels. It can additionally average up to 1,024 repetitive signal strings on all 16 channels with record lengths to 8,192 samples uninterruptedly. The precise sampling or repetitive summing of each new string can be triggered by any of the following software-selectable triggering mechanisms:
A TTL input, with selectable –/+ slope, causes waveforms to be acquired (or added to a running average, if averaging is specified).
A software slider-adjustable level on the incoming signal waveform on any of the 16 channels, with +/ – slope, enables scope-like triggering, with pre-trigger.
A unique heterodyne trigger enables picosecond resolution on repetitive waveforms. Triggering occurs on the difference frequency between the board’s internally generated sampling clock and stimulus frequencies. This is useful for time-of-flight imaging systems, radar, and pulsed spectroscopy systems, in which transmit or stimulus waveforms are repeated M-times/second and the A/D samples data at a rate of N samples per second, thereby automatically acquiring and/or averaging complete waveforms that repeat M minus N times per second.
In addition to its averaging and unique triggering modes, which include pre-triggering capability, the AD14-65Mx16AVE is a high-dynamic-range general-purpose high-speed data-acquisition board capable of transferring acquired data to the host system at up to 60 MB/s.
Mike Ingle, principal hardware architect, stated, “The precise time alignment of acquisition all channels to within one sample period, the 24-bit averaging engine, the flexible triggering modes including novel heterodyne trigger, the selectable pre-trigger memory, and the huge 256-channel expandability make the AD14-65Mx16AVE uniquely suited for scientific, nuclear, radar, medical-imaging, and other demanding applications. Moreover, the FPGA firmware and all software are open-source.”
As true network appliances, data acquisition on each AD14-65Mx16AVE can be operated from anywhere in the world. Data acquisition and display programs are supplied for 64-bit Windows 7/8 and Linux6.x/7.x.
David Schriebman, who developed the included Windows NI LabVIEW VI, stated, “We included a simple, yet powerful real-time, adjustable triggering menu and customizable display interface, which allows easy panning and zooming, to examine fine details on extremely sharp, low-noise averaged waveforms in the time and/or frequency domain on a single graph. Our project allows for continuous and single-shot acquisition, as well as the ability to view previously acquired data.”
Prices start at $6,295 in quantities of 2 through 9.
