20
Continuous Carrier Waveform Operation
The instrument can generate seven types of carrier waveform: sine, square, ramp, pulse, noise,
PRBS and arbitrary. This section deals with the use of the instrument as a simple function
generator, i.e. generating sine, square, ramp and arbitrary waveforms continuously with no
modulation.
Much of the following description of frequency, amplitude and offset control apply to pulse, PRBS
and noise but these are sufficiently different to be given additional sections of their own.
Setting Generator Parameters
Waveform Selection
Pressing any of the carrier waveform keys, SINE, SQUARE, RAMP or ARB, will immediately switch
to that waveform making it available at the MAIN OUT connector if the output is on, indicated by the
OUTPUT key glowing green. If the output is not on press the OUTPUT key twice, followed by the
RAMP key.
The screen below shows the effect of pressing the RAMP key.
The RAMP key now glows green, the
FCN
field in the Parameters Box shows
Ramp
and the
Graph Box has changed to show the ramp waveform.
Frequency
The frequency may be changed in either of the ways detailed in General: Numeric Editing.
Pressing the
Freq
soft-key while it is highlighted will change the label to
Period
and time
units will be used to edit the parameter.
Note that the upper frequency limits vary for the different waveform types; refer to the Specifications
section for details. Frequency setting for pulse and PRBS are explained in the relevant sections.
Amplitude
Pressing the
Ampl
soft-key shows the amplitude parameter in the Edit Box and the Graph Box
changes to show that amplitude is being edited.
