5152 bandwidth limitations

[mhunt2]

Can the PCI-5152 be configured to have a larger bandwidth? At 2 GSPS can the BW get closer to 1GHz? What component limits the BW to 300MHz? If a filter, can it be bypassed?

[G_Lo]

Hi mhunt2,

The 5152 cannot be configured for a larger bandwidth.  300MHz is going to be the largest bandwidth that you will be able to achieve with the filter off.  When the 20MHz Noise Filter is on, the bandwidth is approximately half of the maximum.  Sampling at 2 GSPS means that you are using Random Interleave Sampling.  This oversampling will increase your effective sampling rate but will not change your BW.  This bandwidth is a limitation of the analog front end (everything before the ADC) and cannot be bypassed.  Let me know if you have another question concerning the 5152. 

[mhunt2]

Hi G Lo,

Thanks for the reply. I thought the 5152 would do a true 2GS/s (single channel) and up to 20GS/s with the random interleaved mode. The key point is that the analog front end is where the limit is, not the ADC. Would you have any comments on other boards on the market that claim a 1GHz BW at 2GS/s? e.g. Gage Cobra.

Thanks,

Martin

[JohnnyH]

Hello Martin,

Interesting you should ask this question at the end of last week because just today we announced a new digitizer with 1 GHz analog bandwidth!  It also has a 2 GS/s real-time sample rate (or 20 GS/s ETS).  It's called the PXI-5154.  We're very excited about this product and have already received a lot of positive feedback from customers who have been waiting for this board to be able to use in their systems.

Please let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns.

John Hottenroth

Product Manager - Digitizers/Oscilloscopes