User manual

3390-900-01 Rev. C / January 2009 Return to Section Topics 5-7

Model 3390 Arbitrary Waveform Generator User’s Manual Section 5: Waveform Output Operations

Figure 5-7:

Setting up a pulse waveform

To generate a pulse waveform from a remote interface:

APPLy:PULSe [<frequency>[,<amplitude>[,<offset>] ]]

FUNCtion {PULSe}

FREQuency {<frequency>|MINimum|MAXimum }

VOLTage {<amplitude>|MINimum|MAXimum }

VOLTage:OFFSet {<offset>|MINimum|MAXimum }

PULSe:PERiod {<seconds>|MINimum|MAXimum}

FUNCtion:PULSe:WIDTh {<seconds>|MINimum|MAXimum }

FUNCtion:PULSe:DCYCle {<percent>|MINimum|MAXimum }

FUNCtion:PULSe:TRANsition {<seconds>|MINimum|MAXimum }

Arbitrary waveform

The Model 3390 has five built-in arbitrary waveforms including, exponential-rise, exponential-fall,

negative-ramp, sinc, and cardiac. The default arbitrary waveform is an exponential-rise waveform.

In addition, up to four user-defined arbitrary waveforms can be stored in nonvolatile memory. For

each user-defined waveform, you may create up to 262,144 (256 K) points from the remote

interface. You can use the KiWAVE™ waveform editor software to create waveforms, or import the

waveforms captured previously from an oscilloscope. Refer to Section 7, KiWAVE™ software

installation for software installation instructions.

If you choose an arbitrary waveform as the modulating waveform for AM, FM, PM, or PWM, the

waveform is automatically limited to 4 K points and extra points will be removed by decimation.

IEEE-488.2 binary block format

Following is an example of binary block format:

# 5 32768

This data begins with a number symbol (#) and is followed by a single digit that represents the

number of characters in the length. The third number represents the number of bytes (32,768

bytes = 16,384 points).

A waveform data point is represented as a 16-bit integer sent in two bytes. The total number of

bytes is always an even number that is twice the number of data points in the waveform.

Use the FORM:BORD command to select the byte order for binary block transfers. The default

command is FORM:BORD NORM, in which the most-significant byte (MSB) of each data point is

sent first. If you specify FORM:BORD SWAP, the least-significant byte (LSB) of each data point is

sent first. The DATA:DAC command overwrites the waveform in volatile memory without

generating an error.

NOTE If the data points do not span the full range of the output digital-to-analog

converter (DAC), the maximum amplitude will be limited.