03 | Keysight | M9185A PXI Isolated D/A Converter - Data Sheet

Easy Setup ... Test ... and Maintenance

Hardware platform

Compliance

The M9185A D/A converter is PXI compliant, using either

a cPCI, PXI-1 or PXI Hybrid slot. The product can be inte-

grated with other test and automation modules in cPCI,

PXI-1 and PXI-H chassis (hybrid slots). The PXI format

offers high performance in a small, rugged package.

It is an ideal deployment platform for many automated

test systems. A wide array of complementary PXI prod-

ucts is currently available. Products include multimeters,

waveform generators, local oscillators, digitizers, down

converters and switch multiplexers.

Remote SENSE mechanism

Figure 1. Basic example of the SENSE mechanism

Sense

R

+

–

R

DMM

The precision of the output voltages from D/A converters

cannot always be guaranteed since there is no way to

instantly obtain the voltage levels at the receiving end of a

DUT. Unless a DMM is utilized to measure the voltage and a

manual adjustment is made, there is always an uncertainty

of the output voltage levels from the D/A converters.

The M9185A’s SENSE mechanism acts as a feedback

feature to auto trigger the D/A converter to adjust the

voltage levels to achieve better accuracy at the receiving

end of a DUT. Figure 1 shows a simplified illustration of how

the SENSE mechanism works. The R is actually the path

resistance, or may be the lead resistance, without sense,

the DMM may only sense D/A converter OUTPUT-R. For

instant, the D/A converter outputs 16 V, but DMM may only

sense 15.5 V. So the SENSE mechanism will increase the

voltage by triggering the D/A converter to increase up to

16.5 V; therefore what the DMM now measures is 16 V.

Using the Remote SENSE

When using the remote sensing feature, connect sense

wires from the load to the High Sense and Low Sense ter-

minals for the desired channels. When outputting current

the High Sense and Low Sense terminals are not used and

are opened. For protection, each channel incorporates a

fuse that will open at greater than 20 mA. If an overload

condition exists, the fuse will open, but no error will be

generated. To reset the fuse, remove the overload and wait

a few minutes for the fuse to cool.