Lecroy LW420B User Manual

LeCroy
WaveStation
LW410B/LW420B
Arbitrary
Waveform
Generator

MAINFEATURES

•100 ps Feature Placement
and Single Point Resolution

•1 and 2 Channels Versions

•Generate Complex, Phase
Synchronized Signals on Two
Channels.

•Continuously Variable Sample
Clock From 6 MHz to 400
MHz with 1 Hz Resolution

•Live Control of Edge Timing
and Pulse Amplitude While
Viewing Output Wave

•Stand Alone Design, no PC
Required

•8 Bits of Vertical Resolution

•Up to 1 Mbyte of Playback
Waveform Memory per
Channel

•FastSwitch Group Sequence
Test Mode Provides Random
Access to Sequences With an
Access Time of Under 11 ms

•Internal Disk Drives for
Project, Sequence, and
Waveform Storage

•Digital Output Option
Provides 8-Bit TTL and ECL
Digital Outputs
Corresponding to the Wave
on the Analog Output. Special
Digital Editing Mode Useful
in Creating Data Patterns.

• CE, UL and cUL Certified

FEATURES& BENEFITS

LeCroy's LW420B WaveStation™ is a
dual-channel, 400 MS/s arbitrary wave­form generator (AWG) that brings
together high performance with the
flexibility and capability needed to
quickly generate long, complex wave­forms. WaveStation offers more than
just great technical specifications. It
provides a high level of functionality
and ease of use while eliminating
many of the traditional obstacles of
AWGs.

Building on over 11 years of experi­ence in the design and manufacture of
high-performance digital storage oscil­loscopes and signal sources, LeCroy's
WaveStation combines innovative signal
processing, high-performance design,
and human factors engineering to pro­vide a truly intuitive and highly interac­tive arbitrary waveform generator.

THECHOICEISYOURS:

PECIFYTHEWAVEFORM,

S

ANDLETTHELW420B

ANDLETHEDETAILSOR

H
TAKECONTROLYOURSELF

With the WaveStation, you need no
awareness of the sample clock period
or the particular reconstruction filter
being used. All the LW420B needs is
your waveform’s time and voltage rela­tionships. No matter which of the many
available tools you use to specify the
waveform, the LW420B will generate
the output using the optimum combi­nation of sample clock rate and filter
bandwidth. The filters automatically
selected will assure that aliasing does
not take place and that all the timing
relationships within the waveform will
be precisely maintained. Full control of
the clock and bandwidth filters is there
for those who need it.

LW410A/420A AWGS

http://www.lecroy.com/signal_sources

REAL-TIMEWAVEFORM
MANIPULATIONLETS
YOUQUICKLYCONTROL
THEWAVESHAPE—EASILY

AND

INTERACTIVELY—

HILEVIEWINGONTHE

W
INTERNALCRT DISPLAY

Select a section of the waveform using
the time cursors, then select one of a
set of waveform manipulation opera­tions (e.g. move feature, delay, ampli­tude) and turn the knob! That is how
easy it is to continuously modify all or
part of a waveform. Time shifts, as
small as 100 ps, amplitude variations
on a peak, or changes in signal dura­tion are instantly reflected in the output
signal. Margin testing or characteriza­tion, with the most complex wave­forms, has never been so easy.

WAVEFORMCREATIONHAS
NEVERBEENEASIER

Waveforms can be selected from
libraries of traditional functions or
application specific waveforms. They
can also be created using equations or
imported from external sources such as
oscilloscopes, or from computer pro­grams and simulator output files. Once
waveforms are created or captured,
they can be further modified using
internal waveform (array) math pro­cessing. The waveform math functions
include basic arithmetic operations,
smoothing, integration, differentiation,
and convolution.

The highly developed waveform edit­ing capability uses advanced signal
processing to provide bandlimited cut,

SIGNAL SOURCES

paste, insert and offset operations with
minimal editing artifacts. Single sample
resolution, further simplifying wave­form creation, is allowed since wave­forms are not constrained to 8 sample
multiples as with most other AWGs.

To simulate real-world signals, the
internal, asynchronous, wide-band
noise generator is easily used to add
controlled amounts of noise to your
signals—simply dial in the noise level
as a percentage of your signal’s ampli­tude. A real timesaver is that if you

vary the signal’s amplitude, the signal­to-noise ratio is maintained.

FLEXIBLEWAVEFORM
IMPORTANDTRANSFER

Pull waveforms directly from most digi­tal scopes; Connect a GPIB cable
between the LW420B and your digital
oscilloscope. Select your scope from a
list of commonly available models and
begin importing waveforms.

Waveforms of up to 1 Mpoints in ASCII
or from programs such as MathCad,
MATLAB, PSPICE, IQSIM, TOPSIM and
others can be imported from the floppy
drive. You can also use a shareware
program from LeCroy to convert your
files to DIF format and transfer directly
over the GPIB to the LW420B.

When importing or transferring files,
you have the choice of over sampling
or importing the points exactly as they
are. Once in the WaveStation, all the
modification, editing and math tools
can be used to put the waveform in
the shape you need for your task.

FASTSWITCHGROUP
SEQUENCEINCREASESTEST
FLEXIBILITYAND
MINIMIZESTESTTIME

LeCroy’s Fast Switch Group Sequence
capability enables you to switch
between many different pre-loaded
waveforms in less then 11 ms.
Waveforms will continually play until a
sequence advance is received from the
front panel or a remote command.
Choose to auto advance from sequence
to sequence or choose to jump to the
nth sequence in the group. Generate a
continuous output of a sequence
selected from the group, or use the
external trigger input to initiate a burst
or single shot of the selected sequence.

DIGITALOUTPUTOPTION

The Digital Output option provides
8-bit TTL and ECL digital outputs corre­sponding to the current value of the
Channel–1 analog output. The latched
digital data is held for the duration of
the sample clock. The digital data,

including the sample clock and its
complement, are available via rear­panel connectors. The special digital
editing mode is useful for creating and
editing byte wide data patterns or
selected bits and the standard “cut and
paste” tools available for analog wave­forms can also be used.

400 MS/SMAXIMUM
CLOCKRATE, 1 MPOINT
WAVEFORMS, AND
SYNTHESIZERTIMEBASE
WITHTWOPHASE-

YNCHRONIZEDCHANNELS

S

A maximum sample rate of 400MS/s,
up to 1Mbyte of waveform memory, a
precise timebase, and single point reso­lution gives you the power you need
to generate the most demanding, com­plex stimuli. The timebase combining
3 ppm accuracy and 1 ppm/year stabil­ity assures that the waveforms you test
your systems with next year will be the
same as the ones you use today. Low
single sideband phase noise and a
1 Hz frequency resolution over a con­tinuous 6 kHz–400 MHz range provide
the flexibility and capability needed to
generate even the most complex and
demanding waveforms.

FULLYINTEGRATEDAWG

NCLUDESHIGH

I
PERFORMANCEPROCESSOR,

NTERNALHARDDISK

I
DRIVE, ANDBUILT-IN9

NCHCRT

I

WaveStation provides all the power
needed to work with long and com­plex waveforms. A built-in hard disk
drive, a 486 processor, up to 24 Mbytes
of RAM, and a large internal mono­chrome VGA display make the LW420A
a fast, responsive instrument ideally
suited for the interactive graphical
operations required in a high-perfor­mance AWG.