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Introduction to the 34980A
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Keysight 34980A Mainframe User’s Guide
Signal Routing and Switching
The switching capabilities of the plug-in modules available with the 34980A
provide test system flexibility and expandability. You can use the switching plug-in
modules to route signals to and from your test system or multiplex signals to the
internal DMM or external instruments.
Relays are electromechanical devices which are subject to wear-out failure
modes. The life of a relay, or the number of actual operations before failure, is
dependent upon how the relay is used—applied load, switching frequency, and
environment. The 34980A Relay Maintenance System automatically counts the
cycles of each relay in the instrument and stores the total count in non-volatile
memory on each switch module. You can use this feature to track relay failures
and to predict system maintenance requirements. For more information on using
this feature, refer to
Switching Topologies
Several switching plug-in modules are available with different topologies for
various applications. The following switching topologies are available:
– Multiplexer (with armature, reed, or FET switches)
– Matrices (with armature or reed switches)
– General Purpose (with Form C or Form A switches)
The following sections describe each of these switching topologies. For more
information, see the individual User's Guides included with each module.
Multiplexer Switching
Multiplexers allow you to connect one of multiple channels to a common channel,
one at a time. A simple 4-to-1 multiplexer is shown below.
Common
Channel 2
Channel 3
Channel 4
Channel 1
