ZTEC Instruments is pleased to announce major hardware and firmware upgrades to its popular ZT450-5x oscilloscopes. The ZT450-5x products are members of ZTEC’s C-Class line of Performance Modular Oscilloscopes. The ZT450-5x offers 750 MHz 50-ohm analog bandwidth, up to 2.5 GS/s real-time sampling, up to 32M sample record lengths, and 8-bit vertical resolution. The ZT450-5x is available in PCI, PXI and VXI.

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The new ZT450-5x instruments are 100% code compatible with the earlier models and can be used as drop-in replacements for the earlier models.

Hardware enhancements to the ZT450-5x include increased bandwidth and improved probe compatibility with the 1 MOhm input impedance, increased bandwidth of the 50-ohm protection circuit, and improved reliability and manufacturability. Firmware enhancements include improved DC offset accuracy and some minor bug fixes. Additional details on the enhancements can be found in the knowledgebase on the ZTEC Support Center.

In addition to hardware and firmware upgrades, the new ZT450-5x instruments are supported by the C-Class Zscope Software. ZScope is a soft front panel application used for instrument control and waveform display and analysis. Last but not least, the new ZT450-5x instruments work with ZTEC’s C-Class drivers for C, LabVIEW, and LabWindows/CVI. A COM API enables programming in the MATLAB, Visual Studio and Visual Basic environments.

The entire ZT450 product family provides all the capabilities found in today’s modular digitizers, such as state-of-the-art data conversion technology and deep on-board acquisition memory (up to 32M samples for PCI/PXI and 64M samples for VXI). The product’s modular architecture is ideal for applications with high channel count requirements. Multiple products can be synchronized using the local timing and trigger bus. The product’s phase lock loop and star trigger capabilities provide tight synchronization for applications with stringent timing requirements. Other products, such as the ZT530 series of arbitrary waveform generators, can be synchronized with ZT450 scopes.

In addition to their digitizer features, the products also include capabilities familiar to the benchtop oscilloscope user. For example, each product provides benchtop DSO features such as flexible signal conditioning, advanced triggering, multiple acquisition modes, on-board signal processing, and much more. In particular:

• Triggering – The standard products can be used with a variety of trigger sources, such as software, edge, pattern, pulse width, video and Star trigger. A unique trigger source can be used on trigger A and B. The trigger can be output to either the front panel or the local bus backplane.
• Acquisition Modes – In addition to normal (digitizer) acquisition mode, the products provide averaging, envelope, and equivalent-time sampling. An external sampling clock may also be used.
• Measurements – Many on-board voltage, time and frequency measurements can be made by the products, such as: Vmin, Vmax, Vrms, Period, and Duty Cycle. For frequency, the measurements can be based on the entire waveform or the nth cycle within the waveform. The measurements can also be gated by cursors.
• Signal Processing and Waveform Math – Basic waveform math functions, such as addition, subtraction, and derivation, are available. Advanced processing functions, such as Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) and digital filtering, are also standard on the products.
• Testing – Both limit and mask testing is standard on the products.
• Utilities – Other bench top capabilities uniquely found on these products include auto-configuration, the ability to save and recall instrument states, non-volatile storage of reference waveforms, over voltage input protection, and built-in offset calibration routines.