National Instruments PXIe-4610 Manual

CALIBRATION PROCEDURE
NI PXIe-4610
Power Amplifier
This document contains the verification procedures for the National Instruments PXIe-4610. For
more information about calibration solutions, visit ni.com/calibration.
Contents
Software.................................................................................................................................... 1
Documentation.......................................................................................................................... 2
Test Equipment......................................................................................................................... 3
Connecting the NI PXIe-4610 .......................................................................................... 4
Test Conditions......................................................................................................................... 5
Initial Setup............................................................................................................................... 5
Verification ............................................................................................................................... 5
Gain and Residual Offset Verification ............................................................................. 6
EEPROM Update ..................................................................................................................... 9
Accuracy Under Calibration Conditions .................................................................................. 9
World Wide Support and Services ........................................................................................... 10
Software
NI-DAQmx 9.8 added support for the NI PXIe-4610. Ensure the version of NI-DAQmx on the
calibration system supports the NI PXIe-4610. You can download NI-DAQmx from
ni.com/downloads. NI-DAQmx supports LabVIEW, LabWindows™/CVI™, C/C++, C#,
and Visual Basic .NET. When you install NI-DAQmx, you only need to install support for the
application software that you intend to use.

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Documentation
Consult the following documents for information about the NI PXIe-4610, NI-DAQmx, and
your application software. All documents are available on ni.com and help files install with the
software.
NI PXIe-4610 Getting Started Guide
NI-DAQmx installation and hardware setup.
NI PXIe-4610 Specifications
NI PXIe-4610 specifications and calibration interval.
NI-DAQmx Readme
Operating system and application software support in NI-DAQmx.
NI DAQmx Help
Information about creating applications that use the NI-DAQmx driver.
LabVIEW Help
LabVIEW programming concepts and reference information about NI-DAQmx
VIs and functions.
NI-DAQmx C Reference Help
Reference information for NI-DAQmx C functions and NI-DAQmx C properties.
NI-DAQmx .NET Help Support for Visual Studio
Reference information for NI-DAQmx .NET methods and NI-DAQmx .NET
properties, key concepts, and a C enum to .NET enum mapping table.

NI PXIe-4610 Calibration Procedure |© National Instruments Corporation |3
Test Equipment
Table 1 lists the equipment recommended for the performance verification procedures. If the
recommended equipment is not available, select a substitute using the requirements listed in
Table 1.
Table 1. Recommended Equipment
Equipment
Recommended
Models
Where
Used Requirements
DMM NI PXI-4070 Gain and
Residual
Offset
Verification
If this instrument is unavailable, use a
digitizer capable of measuring ±10 Vpk sine
waves at 1 kHz with an amplitude uncertainty
of 0.1 dB or less, a linearity error of 100 ppm
or less and an offset measurement uncertainty
of 100 μV or less.
Function
Generator
NI PXI-4461 Gain and
Residual
Offset
Verification
If this instrument is unavailable, use a
function generator capable of sourcing
±1.0 Vpk sine waves at 1 kHz with an
amplitude uncertainty of 0.1 dB or less and a
frequency uncertainty of 1% or less.
PXI Express
Chassis
NI PXIe-1062Q — —

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Connecting the NI PXIe-4610
The NI PXIe-4610 provides connections for 2 channels. Refer to Figure 1 for the connection
pinout.
Figure 1. NI PXIe-4610 Pinout
1 OUT CH0+
2 OUT CH0-
3 OUT CH1+
4 OUT CH1 -
5INCH0+
6INCH0-
7INCH1+
8INCH1-
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

NI PXIe-4610 Calibration Procedure |© National Instruments Corporation |5
Test Conditions
The following setup and environmental conditions are required to ensure the NI PXIe-4610
meets published specifications.
• Keep connections to the NI PXIe-4610 as short as possible. Long cables and wires act as
antennas, picking up extra noise that can affect measurements.
• Verify that all connections to the NI PXIe-4610 are secure.
• Use 50 ΩBNC coaxial cables for all connections to the NI PXIe-4610 inputs.
• Maintain an ambient temperature of 23 °C ± 5 °C. The NI PXIe-4610 temperature will be
greater than the ambient temperature.
• Keep relative humidity below 90%.
• Allow a warm-up time of at least 15 minutes to ensure that the NI PXIe-4610 measurement
circuitry is at a stable operating temperature.
• Allow adequate warm-up time for all of the instruments and equipment according to the
manufacturer instructions.
• Ensure that the PXI/PXI Express chassis fan speed is set to High, that the fan filters are
clean, and that the empty slots contain filler panels. For more information, refer to the
Maintain Forced-Air Cooling Note to Users document available at ni.com/manuals.
Initial Setup
Refer to the NI PXIe-4610 Getting Started Guide for information about how to install the
software and hardware and how to configure the device in Measurement & Automation Explorer
(MAX).
Note When a device is configured with MAX, it is assigned a device identifier.
Each function call uses this identifier to determine which DAQ device to verify or,
verify and adjust.
Verification
The following performance verification procedures describe the sequence of operations and
provide test points required to verify the NI PXIe-4610. The verification procedures assume that
adequate traceable uncertainties are available for the calibration references.

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Gain and Residual Offset Verification
Complete the following procedure to verify the gain accuracy and residual offset of the
NI PXIe-4610:
1. Connect the NI PXIe-4610 channel to be verified as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Gain and Residual Offset Verification Connections
2. Configure the function generator as shown in Table 2.
3. Enable the function generator.
4. Enable the NI PXIe-4610 outputs. Additional information about enabling the outputs is
available in the NI PXIe-4610 Getting Started Guide.
5. Allow at least 10 s for the input AC Coupling filter to fully settle.
Table 2. Function Generator Configuration for Gain and Residual Offset Verification
Signal Type Amplitude Frequency
Sine Wave 0.9 Vpk 1 kHz
+
+
HI
LO
HI
LO
DMM
Function
Generator NI PXIe-4610
–
–
OUT CHx
IN CHx

NI PXIe-4610 Calibration Procedure |© National Instruments Corporation |7
6. Configure the DMM in digitizer mode as shown in Table 3.
7. Acquire samples using the DMM.
8. Calculate the amplitude of the acquired signal and record as AmplitudeOUT. NI recommends
using the Extract Single Tone Information VI to calculate the amplitude.
9. Calculate the residual offset of the acquired signal and record as ResidualOffset.
NI recommends using the Extract Single Tone VI to export the residual signal. The residual
offset is the average of the residual signal.
10. Connect the DMM as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3. DMM Connections
11. Repeat steps 7 and 8, and record the amplitude of the acquired waveform as AmplitudeIN .
12. Perform the following calculation using the recorded AmplitudeOUT from step 8 and
AmplitudeIN values for step 11.
Table 3. DMM Configuration for Gain and Residual Offset Verification
Configuration Value
Measurement Voltage
Range 10 V
Waveform Coupling DC
Acquisition Mode Waveform
Acquisition Rate 1.8 MS/s
Samples to Acquire 180,000
+
+
HI
LO
HI
LO
DMM
Function
Generator NI PXIe-4610
–
–
OUT CHx
IN CHx
UnadjustedGain AmplitudeOUT
AmplitudeIN
-------------------------------------=

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13. Convert the unadjusted gain to decibels.
14. Disable the NI PXIe-4610 outputs.
15. Disable the function generator.
16. Read the gain constant of the channel being verified with the AO.PowerAmp.Gain DAQmx
property and convert the gain to decibels.
17. Perform the following calculation using the UnadjustedGain (dB) calculated in step 13 and
the CalibrationGain (dB) calculated in step 16, and record the result as AdjustedGain (dB).
18. Repeat steps 1 through 17 for each channel.
19. Compare the recorded UnadjustedGain (dB) and AdjustedGain (dB) of each channel to the
limits in Table 4.
Note The test limits listed are derived using the values in Table 7.
20. Compare the recorded residual offset for each channel to the limits in Table 5.
Note The test limits listed are derived using the values in Table 8.
If the NI PXIe-4610 is outside the limits found in Tables 4 and 5, refer to World Wide Support
and Services for assistance in returning the device to NI.
Table 4. NI PXIe-4610 2-Year Verification Test Limits for Gain
Input Signal Source Lower Limit (dB) Upper Limit (dB)
Unadjusted 19.969 20.031
Adjusted* 19.989 20.011
*Input signal source gain adjusted using the gain calibration constant stored in the EEPROM.
Table 5. NI PXIe-4610 2-Year Verification Test Limits for Residual Offset
Lower Limit (mV) Upper Limit (mV)
-1 +1
UnadjustedGain (dB) 20 log⋅(UnadjustedGain)=
CalibrationGain (dB) 20 log⋅GainEEPROM()=
AdjustedGain (dB) 20 dB (UnadjustedGain (dB) - CalibrationGain (dB))+=

NI PXIe-4610 Calibration Procedure |© National Instruments Corporation |9
EEPROM Update
After completing a verification procedure, complete the following steps:
1. Open a calibration session for the NI PXIe-4610. The default password is NI.
2. Store the calibration temperature.
a. Record the ambient temperature.
b. Call the DAQmx Set Temperature DSA Calibration function to store the calibration
temperature measured in step a.
3. Store the calibration constants.
a. Perform steps 1 through 9 of the Gain and Residual Offset Verification section to
calculate the ResidualOffset of each channel for which you want to update the offset
calibration constant.
b. Continue with steps 10 through 12 of the Gain and Residual Offset Verification
section to calculate the UnadjustedGain of each channel for which you want to update
the gain calibration constant.
c. Call the DAQmx Adjust DSA Power Amplifier Calibration function for the
NI PXIe-4610 and configure it as shown in Table 6.
d. Repeat steps a through c for each channel for which you want to store a calibration
constant.
4. Close the calibration session.
Accuracy Under Calibration Conditions
The following calibration specifications are valid for the following conditions:
• Ambient temperature is 23 °C ± 5 °C.
• PXI Express chassis fan speed is set to HIGH and has clean fan filters.
• Empty slots have filler panels installed.
Note The test limits listed in Table 4 and 5 are derived using the values in Table 6
and 7, respectively.
Table 6. DAQmx Adjust DSA Power Amplifier Calibration Configuration
Physical Channel Gain Offset
Dev1/ch x The value obtained from step a. The value obtained from step b.

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374185A-01 May14
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Note For operational specifications, refer to the most recent NI PXIe-4610
Specifications document at ni.com/manuals.
World Wide Support and Services
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support you have access to everything from troubleshooting and application development
self-help resources to email and phone assistance from NI Application Engineers.
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Table 7. NI PXIe-4610 Gain Accuracy Under Calibration Conditions
Input Signal Source Gain Accuracy (±dB)
Unadjusted 0.031
Adjusted* 0.011
*Input signal source gain adjusted using the gain calibration constant stored in the EEPROM.
Table 8. NI PXIe-4610 Residual Offset Under Calibration Conditions
Residual Offset
±1 mV