100 MS/s, 16-bit Arbitrary Waveform
Generator with Onboard Signal Processing
NI PXI-5441
• Quadrature digital upconversion
• FIR and CIC interpolation filters
• Carrier frequencies up to
43 MHz with 355 nHz resolution
• 16-bit resolution,
100 MS/s sampling rate
NEW
Recommended Software
• LabVIEW
• LabWindows/CVI
• SignalExpress
• Measurement Studio
• Digital Filter Design Toolkit
• 400 MS/s effective sampling
rate with DAC interpolation
• 32, 256, 512 MB of onboard memory
• Multimodule synchronization
Included Software
• NI-FGEN driver
• LabVIEW Express VIs
• NI Modulation Toolkit
• NI Analog Waveform Editor
• FGEN Soft Front Panel
• LabVIEW RealTime Support
with < 20 ps
skew
rms
• Continuous data
streaming up to 100 MB/s
Operating Systems
Calibration
• Windows 2000/NT/XP
• Gain and offset self-calibration
• 2 year external calibration cycle
Overview
delivers several signal processing functions used to modify the data
The National Instruments NI PXI-5441 is a 100 MS/s arbitrary stored in waveform memory during generation. The signal
waveform generator with Onboard Signal Processing (OSP). OSP processing functions are:
functions include FIR and CIC interpolation filters, digital per-filter
gain and offset control, a numerically controlled oscillator (NCO) Independent I and Q pre-filter gain and offset
and IQ mixing for quadrature digital upconversion. With 16-bit For adding gain and offset imbalance impairments, I and Q pre-filter
resolution and -91 dBc close-in spurious free dynamic range (SFDR), gain and offset can be adjusted before or during the generation of an
the PXI-5441 brings instrument quality specifications to applications output signal.
requiring digital upconversion and baseband interpolation such as
prototyping, validating, and testing communications, radar, and Finite impulse response (FIR) filter
electronic warfare systems. Since the PXI-5441 is a full-featured The FIR filter shapes the waveform data, compensates for the
arbitrary waveform generator, it is also capable of generating general cascaded-integrator comb (CIC) filter response, and interpolates the
purpose electrical test signals and has a maximum output range of waveform data by 2, 4, or 8x. The FIR filter coefficients are
12 Vpk-pk into a 50
Ω
load.
programmable and include flat, raised cosine, root raised cosine,
Gaussian, or custom. For implementing custom filters, consider the
By using the PCI bus to communicate with the host computer, the NI Digital Filter Design Toolkit which includes several advanced
PXI-5441 can download waveforms at up to 100 MB/s, far faster than filter design tools for designing, analyzing, and simulating floating-
traditional GPIB-based instruments. Using the Synchronization point and fixed-point filters.
and Memory Core (SMC) architecture of the PXI-5441, you can
create mixed signal test systems by synchronizing the generator Cascaded-integrator comb (CIC) filter
with digitizers and digital waveform generator/analyzers or For upsampling waveform data to a high sample rate, the CIC filter
synchronize multiple generators to form
a phase-coherent efficiently interpolates by 6x to 256x.
multi-channel generator for generating I/Q signals for applications
such as MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) or beam-forming Numerically controlled oscillator (NCO)
antenna schemes.
The NCO produces sine and cosine waveform data for quadrature
digital upconversion and features 355 nHz frequency resolution and
0.0055o phase resolution for precise control of impairments such as
Onboard Signal Processing
Onboard signal processing (OSP) (Figure 1) significantly extends frequency error and quadrature skew. NCO frequency and phase can
waveform playback time and reduces the time required to compute also be adjusted before or during waveform generation.
and download waveform data by computing the waveform data
using the PXI-5441’s field programmable gate array (FPGA). OSP