Keysight M8121A, User Manual

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12 Keysight M8121A Arbitrary Waveform Generator User Guide
1 Introduction
M8121A Overview
The Keysight M8121A is a 12 GSa/s AWG (Arbitrary Waveform Generator)
with full bandwidth streaming capability. It combines excellent signal
fidelity with high sampling rates, and with its ability to stream data over a
full bandwidth interface, can generate signals of indefinite length.
Conventional AWGs have a certain amount of built-in waveform memory
that allows the user to generate pre-calculated waveform segment(s)
under the control of a sequencer. But no matter how large the memory of
an instrument is, it is a finite resource and eventually a loop will occur.
Even the most complex sequencing engine does not eliminate this basic
limitation.
The M8121A uses a different approach: Instead of a built-in memory, it
offers a full rate Optical Data Interface (ODI) to supply the samples to the
DAC at up to 12 GSa/s, which enables infinitely long scenarios to be
generated with up to approx. 5 GHz of modulation bandwidth.
Key Features
The M8121A is a 12 GSa/s Arbitrary Waveform Generator with the
following key features:
• 1 or 2 channel AWG module with
• 14-bit resolution up to 8 GSa/s
• 12-bit resolution up to 12 GSa/s
• Variable sample rate from 1 GSa/s to 12 GSa/s
• Internal broadband clock synthesizer
• Optional low-phase-noise clock input
• Optional real-time digital signal processing in Keysight Technologies,
Inc. proprietary ASIC for Digital up-conversion to IF
• Form-factor: 2 slot AXIe module, controlled via external PC or AXIe
system controller
Optical Data Interface (ODI)
• 160 Gb/s optical streaming interfaces
• Supports full rate, gapless streaming of samples into the M8121A from
compatible storage, DSP or digitizer devices or custom hardware