More Tests in Less Time
The BI201 is an ultra high performance time and frequency measurement instruments. Its high resolution and throughput, combined with continuous measurement capability, allow you to make measurements that are not possible with traditional time-interval counters. For example, it can timetag events (edges of an input pulse train) at a rate of 4 million per second continuously to on-board memory, while each of the edges is measured with 3ps resolution. This provides the instrument with the capability to analyze the dynamic variations in pulse timing, pulsewidth, or frequency. In other words, the difference between the BI201 and traditional counter/timers is analogous to the difference between voltmeters and scopes. Measurements can also be streamed continuously over the PCI Express interface allowing unlimited acquisition at high rates.
Full-Featured Instrument
The BI201 is a full instrument-on-a-card with all the features and capabilities you would expect in a bench-top instrument including high quality inputs, built-in NIST traceable calibration, and software and hardware that deliver fully computed results. The instrument has 10 measurement functions such as Frequency, Time Interval and Pulsewidth. All functions work directly on the input signal at frequencies up to 800MHz (1.6Gb/s) without any prescaling. This means that you can measure pulses as narrow as 100ps, occurring at frequencies up to 800 MHz, or the skew between two signals at 1.6 Gb/s.
The inputs of the instrument include programmable termination voltage and hysteresis. These are features that are seldom found even in the best of the bench-top instruments. When you connect your signal source to the BI201 it sees a 50 ohm load which is terminated to an accurately programmable voltage between -2V and +3V. This allows you to connect ECL, PECL, or CML sources directly to the instrument with the proper loading. It even allows you to terminate the signal from CMOS sources to a center voltage which provides a symmetrical load for superior performance. The programmable hysteresis is an important feature for signals with slow risetime or high noise levels. It sets different threshold levels for the rising edge and the falling edge which prevents false triggering.
Easy to Use Software
The software for the BI201 is designed for ease of use and extremely high performance. The driver software automatically manages the streaming of measurements at the super high rates which are possible with the PCI Express interface. The front panel software for Windows allows you to easily set up multiple simultaneous displays of the measurements. This gives multiple views of the same data, or different functions from the same data. For example, you can set up the display to show a graph of the frequency of the signal vs. time, plus a tabular display of the same results, plus a graph of the time deviation of the signal vs. time, all from the same measurement acquisition run. The front panel can also run multiple instruments simultaneously.
The actual screen shot below shows three views of the same Time Interval Error (TIE) measurement of a clock signal. Notice how the graph clearly shows a repetitive deviation in the clock edge timing of about 8ps which occurs about every 170ms. Also, note the rms jitter of 3.8ps which is shown in the digital display. This is the jitter of the signal plus the instrument measurement noise. The table display provides additional information about each of the measurement points.
