Four industry firsts delivered by the Tektronix AFG31000 Series that dramatically improve test efficiency and productivity

11 Dec 2020

Four industry firsts delivered by the Tektronix AFG31000 Series that dramatically improve test efficiency and productivity

Nine-inch capacitive display
Monitor waveform added at device under test (DUT) in real time (InstaView&trade™)
Programmable waveform sequencing
Built-in waveform creation capabilities

Are you a researcher or engineer generating increasingly complex tests to debug, troubleshoot, validate, and/or characterize your designs? Tektronix has redefined the arbitrary/function generator with the new AFG31000 Series – a powerful, affordable, and easy-to-use AFG. It offers real-time waveform monitoring, optional programmable waveform sequencing, and the industry’s first AFG touchscreen to significantly boost productivity and efficiency.

AFG user interface from the last decade has been impacting productivity. Until now, all operations have been through buttons which are inconvenient and hard to learn. With deep, cumbersome menu trees and small display sizes, the AFGs were lagging behind other essential bench equipment. There has been a limited ability to edit and program waveforms on the instrument and an impedance mismatch and distortion if DUT is not 50 ohm (most are not).

The new AFG31000 Series finally solves these issues. A tool designed with the engineer in mind, the UI has the space you've been waiting for so you can work quicker, easier and more intuitively.

Read on to discover the four industry firsts delivered by the Tektronix AFG31000 series Arbitrary/Function Generators...

Industry First Nine-inch Capacitive Display

PINCH, ZOOM, SWIPE USER INTERFACE SAVES TIME

The AFG31000 boosts the largest AFG display available. Its intuitive UI means there is no need to read the manual to get started. A shallow menu tree makes it easier and faster to locate settings and parameters. There is flexibility to change settings with the touchscreen, buttons or knobs and short-cuts to access frequently-used settings with swipe operations. Use touch pinch and zoom controls to edit waveforms.

2) Industry First InstaView™ Realtime Waveform Monitoring

ELIMINATES A TIME-CONSUMING SECOND STEP, IMPROVES CONSISTENCY

The output waveform from the AFG can be different from what is delivered at the DUT due to impedance mismatch issues. An oscilloscope is needed to check the signal at the DUT, a time-consuming second step. When impedance is unmatched, some signal is reflected -- InstaView uses this reflection to rebuild the waveform added at the DUT. The AFG31000 minimizes the uncertainty caused by unmatched DUT impedance. Users can also monitor waveforms in real time without the need for a second scope or additional cabling which reduces extra costs and effort.

3) Industry First Integrated Waveform Sequencer

REDUCES THE COST OF GENERATING WAVEFORMS WITH COMPLEX TIMING

Design validation/characterization requires hundreds of test cases combining many different waveforms and settings. Like an MP3 player, AFG31000 can output waveforms in a user-defined sequence. A fraction the price of an AWG (about 1/10th) with 256 steps, up to 128 Mpts/channel, variable sampling clock up to 2 GSa/s and complex timing - continuous, triggered, gated, sequenced. The AFG31000 also retains waveform details without skipping samples.

4) Industry First Integrated Waveform Creation

PC NO LONGER REQUIRED TO GENERATE ARBITRARY WAVEFORMS

Traditionally, a PC must be used to create/edit/transfer arbitrary waveforms to the AFG. Waveforms acquired from an oscilloscope also cannot be loaded into an AFG directly and signal amplitude information is normalized. ArbBuilder is an integrated tool for arbitrary waveform creation/editing. All operations are on the AFG so no extra PC is needed. Amplitude/offset are kept in the waveform, no normalization. Directly load .csv files saved from the oscilloscope.