Lowest voltage input to PXI RF preamplifier 5690

[demetres76]

I am trying to program the RF Preamplifier 5690 to amplify my signal but I am faced with the problem that my signal has a very low voltage. It is basically a spike of around 10 mV and of frequency content of around 300 MHz. In the specs it reads that the lowest input power that will survive is -10 dBm which translates into around 70 mV accross a 50 Ohm resistor. Does this mean that I am stuck and my signal is below the noise floor of the device? Is my understanding correct and if yes is there anything else that I can do? Is there any other product that will do the job?

[The_Red_Barron]

Howdy Demetres!

The "survival input power" for channel 0 of the PXI-5690 is specified as being -10dBm.  That means that you should not put in a signal larger than -10dBm or you will damage the 5690 since it has a fixed gain on channel 0.

Regards,