Multiple RF tone generation hardware

[Gadi_a]

Hi,

I'm currently working on a project which requires a driver for a dual axis acousto-optic component. I need the driver to have:

• At least 2 output channels, each outputting a sum of N individual tones
• ~10 kHz bandwidth for control of the amplitude and frequency of each tone separately
• Square wave AM on each tone separately (different frequency of the AM for each tone, can be modulated (on/off) at different frequencies set via a divider from the master clock)
• The bandwidth of the driver should be around 40 MHz with 16 bit resolution for amplitude and 32 bit resolution in frequency.

Can anyone recommend the best NI platform to do this with? We've thought of a Transceiver Adapter Module coupled with a PXI FPGA Module, but can't seem to find the amount of resources per DDS (that will limit N, the number of tones per output channel we can have).

Thanks!

Gadi.

[Terry_ALE]

FPGA resources used depend on a couple of things which is why it is not always published.  Have you looked at these cards: http://www.ni.com/en-us/shop/select/pxi-flexrio-if-transceiver; they are newer.

[Gadi_a]

Thanks for the fast response!

The newer cards you referred to are an overkill in terms of bandwidth compared to what we need. We won't go over ~200MHz. Can you give a ballpark estimate for the number of tones under the conditions I described? 1-3? tens?

Do you think the hardware we thought of is suitable? Do you know of anything better suited?

Thanks again!

[Terry_ALE]

That's an application question which seems like something you need to know or work out. DDS functions can be made to generate different frequencies after they are compiled. Is that why you ask?