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National Instruments (NI) Overview

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This article provides an overview of National Instruments (NI), a prominent player in the test and measurement (T&M) industry. NI is recognized as a global leader in Virtual Instrumentation technology. They have a strong global presence, including research and development centers in India and offices worldwide.

NI offers a wide range of hardware and software solutions tailored for the test and measurement and control markets. Some of their well-known products include vector signal generators and vector signal analyzers, which are used for technologies like WLAN and Zigbee.

National Instruments Test and Measurement Products and Equipment

The following table outlines some of the hardware and software products offered by National Instruments:

Product ModelDescription
Digital MultimeterNI PXI-4071 PXI DMM 7(1/2)-Digit PXI DMM with 1000 V Digitizer, measures resistance in the range from 10 µohm to 5 GOhm
Oscilloscope / DigitizerSimDev PXIe-5162 (4 channel) 1.5 GHz frequency, 5 GS/s sampling rate, 10-Bit resolution, Available in PXI Express chassis with 18 slots, comes with NI-SCOPE soft front panel.
Vector Signal GeneratorNI PXIe-5673E supports RF frequencies up to 6.6 GHz, RF bandwidth up to 100 MHz, phase noise of about -112dBc/Hz at 10KHz for RF frequency of 1GHz
Vector Signal AnalyzerNI PXIe-5663E supports frequencies up to 6.6GHz, 50MHz BW, 80dB SFDR, <-158dBm/Hz noise floor @ 1GHz
Vector Network Analyzer1.) NI PXIe-5630 supports frequencies up to 6 GHz
2.) NI PXIe-5632 supports frequencies up to 8.5 GHz and IF bandwidth in range 10Hz-500kHz
Software Defined Radio TransceiverNI USRP-292x series supports from 50M to 6GHz range, 20MHz real-time bandwidth, 8x8 MIMO reference
RF Switch1.) 50 Ohm version 50 Ohm RF switches support switching bandwidth up to 40GHz, Available in various frequency ranges 350M, 500M, 2.5G, 2.7G, 5G, 6.6G, 26G, and 40GHz
2.) 75 Ohm version 75 Ohm RF switches operate up to 2.5GHz
RF Power Meter1.) NI USB-5680 supports frequencies up to 6GHz and power range between -40dBm to 23 dBm
2.) NI USB-5681 supports up to 18Ghz and power range from -40 to 20dBm
FPGA based modulesNI FlexRIO PXI Express Supports Virtex-5 SXT FPGAs up to 512MB DDR2 DRAM and 132 I/O lines
Test Application SoftwareVisit NI Website. WLAN, Zigbee test and measurement applications, and toolkits are available.

New Product Offerings

USB data acquisition devices : mioDAQ from NI can take 20 bit, +/- 10 V measurements and offer simultaneous sampling, +/- 10 V output signals, digital I/O and counter/timer channels etc. There are different models as per user requirements such as low cost, high performance, more channels and better measurements.

Conclusion

National Instruments provides a variety of test and measurement products catering to different needs within the T&M industry. It’s important to note that the table above represents only a selection of NI’s product line. For specific requirements, it’s recommended to visit the National Instruments website to explore their full range of products.

Website Link: https://www.ni.com/products/