ADLINK Technology PXI-9816 User manual

Advance Technologies; Automate the World.
Manual Rev. 2.00
Revision Date: October 27, 2008
Part No: 50-17031-1000
PXI-9816/26/46
4-CH 16-Bit 10/20/40 MS/s Digitizer
with 512 MB SDRAM
User’s Manual

Copyright 2008 ADLINK TECHNOLOGY INC.
All Rights Reserved.
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Table of Contents i
Table of Contents
Table of Contents..................................................................... i
List of Tables.......................................................................... iii
List of Figures........................................................................ iv
1 Introduction ........................................................................ 1
1.1 Features............................................................................... 3
1.2 Applications ......................................................................... 3
1.3 Specifications....................................................................... 4
2 Getting Started ................................................................. 17
2.1 Installation Environment .................................................... 17
2.2 Package Contents ............................................................. 18
2.3 Mechanical Drawing and I/O Connectors .......................... 19
2.4 Installing the module.......................................................... 20
2.5 Software Support ............................................................... 21
Driver Support for Windows .......................................... 21
WD-DASK (Legacy Drivers and Support) ..................... 23
3 Operation Theory ............................................................. 25
3.1 Functional Block Diagram.................................................. 25
3.2 Basic AI Acquisition ........................................................... 26
Analog Input Path ......................................................... 26
Basic Acquisition Timing ............................................... 26
AI Data Format ............................................................. 28
3.3 ADC Sampling Rate and TIMEBASE Control.................... 29
Internal Oscillator .......................................................... 29
External Clock Through Front Panel ............................. 29
External Clock from PXI Interfaces ............................... 30
Sampling Rate Control .................................................. 30
Timebase Exporting ...................................................... 31
3.4 Trigger Sources ................................................................. 32
Software Trigger ........................................................... 32
External Digital Trigger ................................................. 33
Analog Trigger .............................................................. 34
PXI STAR Trigger ......................................................... 35
PXI Trigger Bus ............................................................ 35

ii Table of Contents
Trigger Signal Exporting ............................................... 36
3.5 Trigger Modes.................................................................... 37
Post-trigger Acquisition ................................................. 37
Pre-trigger Acquisition .................................................. 38
Middle-trigger Acquisition ............................................. 39
Delay-trigger Acquisition ............................................... 39
Post-trigger or Delay-trigger Acquisition with Re-trigger 40
3.6 Data Transfers ................................................................... 41
3.7 Synchronizing Multiple Modules ........................................ 42
SSI_TIMEBASE ............................................................ 43
SSI_TRIG1 ................................................................... 44
SSI_TRIG2 and SSI_START_OP ................................. 45
Comparing the Different Trigger Sources from SSI ...... 46
Important Safety Instructions............................................... 49

List of Tables iii
List of Tables
Table 1-1: Analog Input Specifications ...................................... 4
Table 1-2: System Noise ........................................................... 6
Table 1-3: Spectral Characteristics – PXI-9816 ......................... 7
Table 1-4: Spectral Characteristics – PXI-9826 ......................... 9
Table 1-5: Spectral Characteristics – PXI-9846 ....................... 11
Table 1-6: Timebase ................................................................ 13
Table 1-7: Triggering ............................................................... 14
Table 1-8: Data Storage and Transfer ..................................... 15
Table 1-9: Onboard Reference ................................................ 15
Table 1-10: General Information ................................................ 16
Table 2-1: Connector Pin Assignments ................................... 19
Table 3-1: Basic Counters ....................................................... 27
Table 3-2: AI Data Format ....................................................... 28
Table 3-3: Ideal Transfer Characteristics for Analog Triggers . 34
Table 3-4: Summary of SSI timing Signals and the
Corresponding Function ......................................... 42

iv List of Figures
List of Figures
Figure 1-1: PXI-9816 Bandwidth Chart ........................................ 5
Figure 1-2: PXI-9826 Bandwidth Chart ........................................ 5
Figure 1-3: PXI-9846 Bandwidth Chart ........................................ 6
Figure 1-4: PXI-9816 FFT with ±0.2 V Input Range..................... 7
Figure 1-5: PXI-9816 FFT with ±1 V Input Range........................ 8
Figure 1-6: PXI-9826 FFT with ±0.2 V Input Range..................... 9
Figure 1-7: PXI-9826 FFT with ±1 V Input Range...................... 10
Figure 1-8: PXI-9846 FFT with ±0.2 V Input Range................... 11
Figure 1-9: PXI-9846 FFT with ±1 V Input Range...................... 12
Figure 2-1: PXI-98x6 Mechanical Drawing................................. 19
Figure 2-2: DAQPilot Main Interface .......................................... 21
Figure 2-3: DAQMaster Device Manager................................... 22
Figure 2-4: Legacy Software Support Overview ........................ 23
Figure 3-1: PXI-98x6 Functional Block Diagram ........................ 25
Figure 3-2: Analog Input Signal Block Diagram ......................... 26
Figure 3-3: Basic Acquisition Timing Of Digitizer ....................... 28
Figure 3-4: PXI-98x6 Timebase Source and Architecture.......... 29
Figure 3-5: Configuring Different Sampling Rate of a Digitizer. . 31
Figure 3-6: PXI-98x6 Trigger Architecture ................................. 32
Figure 3-7: External Digital Trigger Polarity and
Pulse Width Requirement. ....................................... 33
Figure 3-8: Analog Trigger Conditions ....................................... 35
Figure 3-9: TRG IO Output Signal Timing.................................. 36
Figure 3-10: Post-trigger Acquisition............................................ 37
Figure 3-11: Pre-trigger Mode Operation ..................................... 38
Figure 3-12: Pre-trigger Mode Operation ..................................... 38
Figure 3-13: Middle-trigger Mode Operation ................................ 39
Figure 3-14: Delay-trigger Mode Operation ................................. 39
Figure 3-15: Re-trigger Mode Operation. ..................................... 40
Figure 3-16: Scatter-Gather DMA for Data Transfer .................... 41
Figure 3-17: SSI Architecture....................................................... 43
Figure 3-18: SSI_TRIG1 Input and Output Timing
Characteristics ......................................................... 44
Figure 3-19: SSI_TRIG2 Output Timing....................................... 45
Figure 3-20: SSI_TRIG2 Input Timing Requirement .................... 45
Figure 3-21: SSI_START_OP Output and Input Timing
Characteristics ......................................................... 46

Introduction 1
1 Introduction
The ADLINK PXI-9816/9826/9846 are 10 MS/s, 20 MS/s, and 40
MS/s sampling 16-bit 4-CH digitizers designed for digitizing high
frequency and wide dynamic range signals with an input frequency
up to 20 MHz. The analog input range can be programmed via
software to ±1 V or ±0.2 V. With deep onboard acquisition memory
up to 512 MB, the PXI-9816/PXI-9826/PXI-9846 are not limited by
the data transfer rate of the PCI bus to enable the recording of
waveforms for extended periods of time.
The PXI-9816/PXI-9826/PXI-9846 are equipped with four high lin-
earity 16-bit A/D converters ideal for demanding applications with
a high dynamic range such as radar, ultrasound, and software-
defined radio.
Analog Input
The PXI-9816/PXI-9826/PXI-9846 each feature four analog input
channels. The bandwidth of each channel can be up to 5 MHz, 10
MHz, and 20 MHz for PXI-9816, PXI-9826, and PXI-9846, respec-
tively. The input ranges are software programmable as either ±1 V
or ±0.2 V. Software selectable 50 Ωinput impedance makes it
easy to interface with high-speed, high-frequency signals.
Acquisition System and On-board Memory
The PXI-9816/PXI-9826/PXI-9846 include four 16-bit A/D convert-
ers to digitize the input signals. These four channels sample sig-
nals simultaneously at a maximum sampling rate of 10 MS/s, 20
MS/s, and 40 MS/s, respectively. The PXI-9816/PXI-9826/PXI-
9846 supports a total of 512 MB on-board memory. The digitized
data is stored in the on-board memory before being transferred to
the host memory. The data transfer is performed using scatter-
gather DMA, which provides a high data throughput rate and uses
system memory more effectively. If the data throughput from digi-
tizer is less than the available PCI bus bandwidth, the PXI-9816/
PXI-9826/PXI-9846 also features an on-board 2 K-sample FIFO to
achieve real-time transfer directly to the host memory by bypass-
ing the on-board memory.

2 Introduction
Flexible Triggering
The PXI-9816/PXI-9826/PXI-9846 feature flexible triggering
options such as a software trigger, external digital trigger, an ana-
log trigger from any of the analog input channels and triggers from
the PXI trigger bus. These versatile trigger sources allow you to
configure the PXI-9816/PXI-9826/PXI-9846 to fit your application
needs. Post-trigger, delay-trigger, pre-trigger and middle-trigger
modes are also available to acquire data around the trigger event.
The PXI-9816/PXI-9826/PXI-9846 also features repeated trigger
acquisition, so you can acquire data in multiple segments with suc-
cessive trigger events at extremely short rearming intervals.
Multiple-Module Synchronization
The versatile trigger options provided by the PXI backplane allow
the PXI-9816/PXI-9826/PXI-9846 to achieve multi-module syn-
chronization in a simplified way. Utilizing the PXI Trigger bus, the
PXI-9816/PXI-9826/PXI-9846 can output trigger signals and the
timebase to the PXI trigger bus when configured as a master, or
receive trigger signals and the timebase from the PXI trigger bus
when configured as a slave. Moreover, when the PXI-9816/PXI-
9826/PXI-9846 is plugged into a peripheral slot of a PXI system,
they can also receive triggers or the timebase from the PXI star
trigger controller slot. The precision 10 MHz clock that comes from
the PXI backplane can also be used as one of the timebase
sources. Combining these PXI trigger features with the interface of
the PXI-9816/PXI-9826/PXI-9846 makes it very easy to synchro-
nize multiple modules.
Calibration
The PXI-9816/PXI-9826/PXI-9846 include a precision on-board
reference with very low temperature drift. This feature not only
provides a stable calibration source for auto-calibration but also
maintains stable acquisition accuracy over a wide temperature
range. The automated calibration process can be done through
software without need for any manually adjustments. Once the
calibration process has completed, the calibration information will
be stored in the on-board EEPROM so that the values can be
loaded and used as needed by the board.