Fieldbus & Industrial Networking


PCIe digitiser cards for optimal GHz signal acquisition and analysis

April 2026 Fieldbus & Industrial Networking

The addition of two new PCIe Digitiser cards from Spectrum Instrumentation extends the company’s flagship M5i series to deliver optimal GHz signal acquisition and analysis capabilities. The one- and two-channel cards offer a combination of ultrafast 10 GS/s sampling speed with 12-bit vertical resolution, and market-leading 12,8 GB/s data streaming over the PCIe bus. To achieve this unbeatable streaming rate, they use 16 lane, Gen3, PCIe technology. This allows the acquired data to be sent directly to PC memory for storage, or to CPUs and GPUs for customised signal processing and analysis. The cards also feature front-end circuitry with over 3 GHz bandwidth and up to 16 GB of on-board memory. This makes these cards a powerful package for engineers dealing with today’s most challenging GHz-range electronic signals.

With 12-bit resolution, these innovative digitisers offer better dynamic range than most conventional test instruments. For example, they deliver 16 times more resolution than many digital oscilloscopes, which typically use 8-bit analogue to digital converters. The extra resolution allows measurements to be made with better signal to noise ratio and improved accuracy and precision. It also lets users capture and characterise fine signal details that are often missed by lower resolution devices.

The cards are designed to handle a wide variety of signals, such as those found in communications, semiconductor testing, spectroscopy, optical systems, and quantum physics. The front-end circuitry has over 3 GHz bandwidth, with programmable full-scale ranges from ±200 mV to ±2,5 V, together with variable offset. Acquisitions can be made in single-shot or multiple-waveform recording modes.

Multiple recording divides the on-board memory into segments and allows the acquisition of numerous events, even at very high trigger rates. It is perfect for situations like those encountered in serial bus testing or with devices using stimulus-response processes, such as those found in LIDAR and RADAR systems. For added flexibility, the onboard memory can be used as a ring buffer, working much like a conventional oscilloscope, or as a FIFO buffer for the continuous streaming of data to the PC environment.


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