Digitizer runs 16 bits at high speed

Get 16-bit resolution at 250 Msamples/s

-- Test & Measurement World, 2/8/2012 3:41:00 PM

The ATS 9625 digitizer card from Alazar Tech contains two analog-input channels that simultaneously sample at

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speeds up to 250 Msamples/s. The card's 8-lane PCI Express architecture lets you install it into any 8-lane or 16-lane PCIe slot in a desktop computer. Each lane can move data at up to 2.5 Gsamples/s to a host processor from the card's 2 Gsamples of acquisition memory. Up to four cards can be connected together in a master/slave configuration for building systems with up to eight channels.

Each ATS 9625 card has two on-board FPGAs. A coprocessor PFGA can moves data samples from each ADC (analog-to-digital converter) to the card's acquisition memory before sending data to the host computer's memory. The coprocessor, an Altera Stratix III EP3SL50F780C4N FPGA, lets you program signal processing functions such as filters, FFT's and signal averaging onto the card, relieving the host computer from those tasks. For more processing power, the ATS 9625 is available with an upgrade to an Altera EP3SE260H780C4N FPGA.

Each analog front end has its own isolation transformer and 250 Msample/s, 16-bit ADC. Sample rates can range down to 50 Msample/s when necessary. Analog bandwidth ranges from 1 MHz to 150 MHz. Inpout impedance is 50 Ω. The triggering system can trigger an acquisition using edge triggering on either channel or it triggers from an external pulse.

Software support includes AlazarDSO oscilloscope software for stand-alone operation. A development kit suports C/C++, C#, Matlab, and LabVIEW, with optional Linux drivers also available. For FPGA programming, use the optional ATS9625-FDK development kit.

Applications include optical-coherence tomography, radar signals, beamforming and automated test. Prices are $7995 or the standard card and $9995 for a card with the upgraded FPGA coprocessor. The FPGA development kit costs $995. Alazar Tech, http://www.alazartech.com.