High Frequency Square Wave Generator: 500 MHz, 2 Channels

[SwissApe]

Greetings,

Sorry to bother you with such a trivial question, but I'm looking for a high frequency (>500 MHz) 2 channels square wave generator.
Do you know any material (not too expensive if possible) that would match these specifications?

Many thanks!

 

[f95toli]

Can you be a bit more specific?
Do you mean a generator with a 500 MHz analog bandwidth OR a generator that can produce a 50-50 square wave with a 1/500e6 s period?
In either case it sounds like you are asking about something called a pulse pattern generator. You can buy them from e.g. Agilent or Anritsu.
The price will probably be somewhere in the range $10 000-$30 000.

 

[berkeman]

Greetings,

Sorry to bother you with such a trivial question, but I'm looking for a high frequency (>500 MHz) 2 channels square wave generator.
Do you know any material (not too expensive if possible) that would match these specifications?

Many thanks!

500MHz 50 Ohm signal generators are available, but I don't know about the square wave part. What are you intending to use it for? 500MHz square waves exist on high-speed digital integrated circuits, but are not generally driven off-chip.

 

[edmondng]

i was going to suggest DDS but doubt there's any chip out there to work with

 

[asynchronous13]

f95toli is right, a real 2 channel square wave generator capable of 500Mhz is going to be pretty expensive.

But I'm guessing that you're interested in making something?

DDS - (Direct Digital Synthesis) chips are interesting. Analog Devices makes some but I'm not sure if you can get 500Mhz output from these.

Look up "astable multi-vibrator" circuits. Depends on your purpose, of course, but a simple circuit might be good enough.

 

[fedaykin]

I don't know if this would satisfy your needs, but couldn't you take a 500mHz sine wave and put two diodes in anti-parallel across the output, amplify the voltage if necessary, then use zener diodes to help eliminate the non-horizontal parts of the wave?

The problem comes if you need to alter the duty cycle of one part of the wave.

 

[waht]

Agilent HP 8133A model is a 3 GHz pulse generator, which is more than 20 years old. You might find it costs from 6 to 10 grand.

http://www.valuetronics.com/Details.aspx?Model=Agilent%20HP_8133A&ProdID=4625


Or a brand new Agilent 81130A dual channel 660 MHz pulse generator which goes for 25 grand.

http://www.home.agilent.com/agilent...c=eng&nid=-536902258.536881949.00&pageMode=PL

 

[SwissApe]

Many thanks for all your answers, I'll see what I can find in commercial pulse generators... I'm afraid I'm not good enough to make such a device on my own.