National Instruments Introduces High-Performance PXI Express Data Acquisition with Integrated Signal Conditioning

AUSTIN, Texas – May 25, 2010 – National Instruments (Nasdaq: NATI) today announced the company’s first data acquisition (DAQ) modules with integrated signal conditioning for scalable, high-performance measurements on PXI Express. The new NI SC Express family delivers increased accuracy, high data throughput and best-in-class synchronization for measuring strain gauges, bridge-based transducers, thermocouples and high-voltage analog inputs. PXI Express provides 250 MB/s of dedicated bandwidth for each SC Express module in the chassis, which helps engineers increase channel count without compromising sampling rates or data throughput. With a smaller footprint, simplified cable management and new software features for automatic synchronization, the SC Express modules make it easy for engineers to set up and program high-channel-count sensor measurement systems.

The NI PXIe-4330 24-bit simultaneous bridge input module offers 0.02 percent accuracy and 25 kS/s per channel sample rate for high-performance strain, load, force and torque measurements. The bridge input module achieves high accuracy with a ratiometric design where the ADC references the excitation voltage. This approach removes the measurement’s dependence on the stability and accuracy of the excitation voltage. In addition, unique delta-sigma ADCs provide both excellent AC performance as well as DC accuracy, while traditional delta-sigma ADCs only offer AC performance.

The NI PXIe-4330 bridge input module can perform quarter, half and full bridge-based measurements with automatic synchronization features. The included driver software ensures tight synchronization across multiple modules and chassis with inter-channel skews as low as 5 ppb. The 8-channel bridge input module can scale to a 136-channel system in a single chassis and thousands of channels when synchronizing across multiple chassis. The high-accuracy, simultaneity and synchronization features make the NI PXIe-4330 module ideal for high-channel-count structural test applications, such as wind tunnels, bridge monitoring and crash tests.