What is a digitizer

This page describes what is a digitizer and mention digitizer manufacturers.The popular digitizer manufacturers are Applicos, Keysight ,NI, SP devices, Spectrum Gmbh etc.

A digitizer is typically a device which converts analog data format into digital data format. Analog data can be in the form of image, sound, video, document and signal. The most common digitizer will have LCD attached to it.

The common applications of digitizer include following:
• Semiconductor testing
• Non destructive testing such as Ultrasound
• Medical Imaging
• Radar
• SDR(Software Defined Radio)
• Video Signal Analysis
• Cable fault testing
• Communication protocol analysis

A digitizer is basically a set of multiple ADCs with added functionalities such as buffer memory and programming capability. Each channel of digitizer has one ADC module. The digitizer device acquires, stores and sends these multiple channels of data for further processing.

The modern digitizers will have following built-in interfaces:
• AXIe • cPCI • LXI • MTCA • PCI • PCIe • PXI • VME-bus • VXI and VPX for test system integration

specifications for buying a digitizer

Following specifications need to be considered for buying a digitizer.
• Bandwidth
• Sampling Rate
• Resolution and Dynamic Range
• On board memory

Digitizer manufacturers

Following are the popular digital digitizer manufacturers.

Manufacturer:NI
Model No:NIPCIe-5170R reconfigurable digitizer/oscilloscope
Features: houses FPGAs for reconfiguration, offers user programming in labview FPGAs

Manufacturer:Keysight
Model No:M9703A wideband AXIe Digitizer
Features: 8 channels, DC to 2 GHz frequency input, 12 bit resolution, 3.2 GSPS sampling rate, houses FPGAs on board for further processing

Manufacturer:Applicos
Model No:PD24222 (24 bit digitizer)
Features:Dual channel, differential inputs, 32mV to 10V p-p Input, programmable DC offset, labview, lab windows

Manufacturer:Spectrum Gmbh
Model Nos:M4i.22xx-x8 series digitizer cards
Features: 1/2/4 channels per card, 5 GSPS sampling rate, bandwidth of 1GHz, 4GB onboard memory, PCIe x8 Gen2 interface
Spectrum Gmbh offers other models of digitizers.

Manufacturer:SP Devices
Model No:ADQ1600
Features:14 bit resolution, 1.6 GSPS sampling rate, FPGA onboard for real time signal processing

Difference between Digitizer,DAQ and Digital Oscilloscope

Refer difference between digitizer,DAQ and Oscilloscope which compares these three digital systems with respect to various factors.

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