Using oscilloscopes or digitizers
Traditional measurement systems are based on oscilloscopes. An oscilloscope is a lab equipment well recognized for its flexibility and adaptability to a diversity of measurement.
A digitizer is designed for being integrate in a system with a re-defined set of measurement tasks and to perform the same tasks as fast as possible in 24-7 operation.
The advantages of a digitizer are:
- High throughput which means minimized measurement time, which is low cost per measurement.
- Open API for full control from the test system. This means that the measurement sequence can be optimized.
- Small formfactor to save space in the rack.
- Multiple digitizers of different performance can be combined to achieve different types of measurements at different nodes of the DUT. Using different models optimize the cost of the system. For example, two boards of ADQ32 and one board of ADQ33 can form 4 channels at 2.5 GSPS and 2 channels at 1 GSPS.
The digitizers are available as individual unit for integration in an existing PC. There are also
reference designs available for various levels of integration.
Measurement sequence optimization
The traditional oscilloscope has a sequential way of operating which is necessary in a lab environment and may also be a good choice for the verification phase. In the figure below the measurement phase is completed, then the data is transferred to the user’s PC. Then the result is analyzed and/or plotted. This is very good for iterative investigations.