How to select a suitable signal generator?

Mar. 31, 2021

Signal generator is a common instrument in area of education, science, telecommunication, industry, etc., which can generate standard function or arbitrary waveform signal. Then how to select a suitable signal generator? Parameters such as

maximum frequency, output channels, frequency resolution, sample rate, accuracy, amplitude, waveforms, etc. should be considered.

Here we introduce key factors for your reference:

1. Sample Rate

Sample rate indicates the maximum clock rate or sample rate when generator works, usually expressed in XXX M points per second or XXX G points per second (MSa/s or GSa/s). Generally speaking, you need to select the ones whose sample rate is twice of the highest frequency component of the signal to guarantee the signal is shown accurately. It also influences the minimum time increment of the waveform.

2. Waveform Length

Waveform length plays an important role in the signal fidelity, because it can define a waveform by storing the data points. The more points the waveform has, the more details of waveform can be stored.

3. Vertical Resolution

Vertical resolution is related to generator’s DAC binary word length, expressed in bits. The more bits are, the higher resolution is. DAC vertical resolution influences waveform’s amplitude accuracy and distortion. Although the higher the better, most generators use the compromise, because the higher the resolution is, the lower the sample rate is.

4. Features and Functions

The standard waveform, modulation function, amplitude and waveform editor, etc. should also be taken into your consideration.

5. Competitive price and better after sale service

Attached the selection guide of generators provided by Suin.

And welcome to contact us if you are interested in any one.

	TFG6800 Series	TFG2900A Series	TFG3600 Series	SU3630	TFG3900A Series	TFG6900A Series	TFG1900B Series	TFG1900A Series
Max Frequency	100MHz	400MHz	1500MHz	3GHz	160MHz	60MHz	20MHz	20MHz
Channel	2	2 or 4	2	1	2	2	1	2
Frequency Resolution	1μHz	1μHz	1μHz	3Hz	1μHz	1μHz	10μHz	1μHz
Best Accuracy	20ppm	1ppm	1ppm	±5ppm	2ppm	50ppm	50ppm	20ppm
Sampling Rate	250MSa/s	1.2GSa/s	50MSa/s	○	500MSa/s	120MSa/s	100MSa/s	100MSa/s
Vertical Resolution	16 bits	14 bits	10 bits	○	14 bits	14 bits	8 bits	10 bits
Output level	Max 20Vpp	Max 10Vpp	-127dBm ~+13dBm	-60dBm ~+10dBm	Max 20Vpp	Max 20Vpp	Max 20Vpp	Max 20Vpp
Waveform	165 kinds including Sine, Square, Ramp, Pulse, Noise, DC, PRBS, user-defined Arbitrary waveform, user-defined harmonic, etc	165 kinds including: Sine, square, ramp, pulse, noise, PRBS, Arbitrary waveforms and user-defined	CHA: Sine, Square CHB: Sine, Square, Ramp, Pulse, and 4 built in waveforms	Sine	150 kinds including: Sine, square, ramp, pulse, noise, PRBS, Arbitrary waveforms and user-defined	Sine, square, ramp, pulse, noise +50 built in Arbitrary waveforms + 5 user-defined	Sine, square, ramp, pulse, Exponent, Logarithm, Noise, etc. totally 16 waveforms	11 built in waveforms + 5 user-defined
DC Offset	●	●	●	○	●	●	●	●
TTL	●	●	●	○	●	●	●	●
Sweep	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●
Modulation	FM,AM, PM,PWM, Sum,FSK, 4FSK,NFSK,PSK,4PSK, NPSK,ASK,OSK	FM, AM, PM, PWM, Sum, FSK, 4FSK, NFSK, PSK, 4PSK, NPSK, ASK, OSK	FM, AM, FSK, PSK	Pulse	FM,AM,PM,PWM, Sum,FSK,4FSK, QPSK,,ASK,OSK	FM,AM,PM,PWM, Sum,FSK, BPSK	FM,AM,PM,PWM, FSK	FM,AM,PM,PWM, FSK
Burst	●	●	●	○	●	●	●	●
Frequency Counter	●	○	○	○	0.1Hz~350MHz	0.01Hz~350MHz	○	1Hz~100MHz
Display	7'' TFT LCD touch screen	7'' TFT LCD touch screen	4.3'' TFT LCD	4.3'' TFT LCD	4.3'' TFT LCD	4.3'' TFT LCD	VFD	VFD
Interface	USB Host & Device and LAN, WIFI	USB Host & Device , LAN, WIFI	USB Device, RS-232	USB Device, RS-232	USB Host & Device and LAN	RS-232, USB Host & Device	USB Device	USB Host & Device
Options	TCXO, Power Amplifier, IOT interface	Frequency Counter	GPIB, Frequency Counter	GPIB	Amplifier	Amplifier, TCXO	○	○

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