Spectrum Instrumentation has added six arbitrary waveform  generators (AWGs) to its recently released M2p.65 xx series of PCIe cards. The AWGs extend the product family’s capabilities by boosting the available output range, so that waveforms can be generated with amplitude swings of up to ±12 V into 1 MOhms or ±6 V into 50 Ohms.

To achieve the higher output voltage ranges, the cards have been fitted with additional amplification and larger cooling plates. This makes the cards a little wider, so that they occupy two PCIe slots, but they are still 168 mm in length. The small size allows them to fit into almost any PC, turning it into a powerful and flexible waveform generator.

The M2p.65xx series AWGs use the latest 16-bit digital-to-analog converters and feature a fast PCIe x4 interface with up to 700 MByte/s streaming speed. Users can select output speed rates of either 40 MS/s (M2p.654x series) or 125 MS/s (M2p.657x series) and models with one, two or four channels per card. 

Each channel features its own DAC and output stage. Multi-channel cards share a common clock and trigger to ensure full synchronization and the output stages incorporate four switchable filter paths to help optimize signal quality. The output stages combine with the high resolution 16-bit DACs to enable the generation of signals with very low distortion, exceptional dynamic range and a high signal-to-noise ratio.