Can NI Signal Genrator generate 20nS wide pulse?

[Hedra]

Hi,

1- Could you please advice me that If NI SGs can generate 20nS wide pulse?

2-I also want to analyze the 6 Ghz signal genrated NI SG and then analyze it and because NI SA can only analyse upto 2.7 Ghz that is why I want to use PXI based Agilent N2100B (Vector Signal Analyzer) with NI Signal Generator.  I want to use NI PXI-1033 Integrated MXI Express as PXI platform for above mentioned Agilent SA and NI SG. Please advice if it will work or any other alternate.

Regards,

Sohail

[Robert_F]

Hello Sohail,

Right now National Instruments only offers a solution that allows customers to acquire a RF signal between 9 kHz and 2.7GHz.  However both the NIRFSG & NIRFSA should be able to generate and acquire a 20ns pulse.  The carrier frequency is going to be the limitation of a NI solution.

[Hedra]

Hello Rob,

Thank you for your response. Please also let me know if a pulse can be trigger and what is the minimum interval in nS between two pulse generated. Kindly also let me know the exact model which can trigger the pulses with minimum time interval.

Regards,

Sohail

[Speedy_Badger]

Hello Sohail,

I wanted to clarify Rob's previous post. The max sample rate on the signal generator for the 5671 and 5672 is 100MS/s, meaning that you could achieve 50Mhz, or 20ns, while still satisfying Nyquist. This however is a single harmonic (sinewave) and will not give you square pulse shape. You would need additional harmonics which would require sample rates much higher than what we can currently implement. Can you give us more detail on your application and the requirements for your pulses? Are these pulses going to change in width throughout the application or will they be standardized to 20ns. Likewise, will the low time be 20ns as well or will it be based on when the triggering occurs?

In regards to the trigger delay, the 5441 and 5442 Signal Generators, which are used in the 5671 and 5672 RFSG setups respectively, can make use of arbitrary waveform generation and onboard scripting. This scripting technique allows you to program functional processes such as how many pulses will be generated, whether they are repeated and what they are triggered by etc. There is a script delay involved in this process, however it is not a traditional trigger "re-arm" delay which I believe you are asking about in your last post. You can find information on the delays between the start trigger and the data generation, as well as other timing involved, in the specifications document for the 5441 and 5442 on page 23 and 20 respectively.

With more detail we can try and get you to the right solution. Thanks!

Regards,