{"id":23175,"date":"2017-12-11T08:26:48","date_gmt":"2017-12-11T16:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.digilentinc.com\/?p=23175"},"modified":"2026-07-20T07:44:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T14:44:52","slug":"the-impedance-analyzer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/the-impedance-analyzer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Impedance Analyzer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While <a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/waveforms-2015-download-only\/\">WaveForms 2015<\/a> is an incredibly multi-purpose and useful tool for working with electronics, it can be a little intimidating to account for and understand all its capabilities. Today we are going to go over one of those many features (The <a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/reference\/add-ons\/impedance-analyzer\/reference-manual\">Impedance Analyzer<\/a>) so that you can get the most out of this powerful software.<\/p>\n<p><strong>So when would one use this?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you are working on a high speed application or with specific frequency requirements, you might need to account for something known as parasitics. If you are unfamiliar with this term, a definition is included below (from the Digilent wiki).<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The total counteractive force to the flow of electrons through a system is known as impedance. This can be abstractly thought of as the resistance of the circuit and can be measured with an impedance analyzer. But if impedance is just a way of representing the resistance a circuit offers, why is a fancy tool required to do so and not just a digital multimeter? The reality is that no real components, resistors, capacitors, or inductors, are purely resistive or reactive. Every component in existence is a combination of R, C, and L aspects; the unwanted aspects are called parasitics.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/reference\/add-ons\/impedance-analyzer\/getting-started-guide\">Impedance Analyzer<\/a> can provide information pertaining to impedance, admittance, inductance, capacitance, phase, and quality factor of the system.\u00a0\u00a0It is available in the WaveForms 2015 software (version 3.6.8 or newer) for the original <a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/analog-discovery-100msps-usb-oscilloscope-logic-analyzer-limited-time\/\">Analog Discovery,<\/a> the <a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/analog-discovery-2-100msps-usb-oscilloscope-logic-analyzer-and-variable-power-supply\/\">Analog Discovery 2<\/a>, and the<a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/electronics-explorer-all-in-one-usb-oscilloscope-multimeter-workstation\/\"> Electronics Explorer board<\/a>, and a detailed description of how to go navigate the workspace and measure a simple low pass filter is included on the<a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/reference\/learn\/instrumentation\/tutorials\/ad2-impedance-analyzer\/start\"> wiki page.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>To start this tutorial, you will first need to gather your materials. This includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"level1\">\n<div class=\"li\"><a class=\"urlextern\" title=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/analog-discovery-2-100msps-usb-oscilloscope-logic-analyzer-and-variable-power-supply\/\" href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/analog-discovery-2-100msps-usb-oscilloscope-logic-analyzer-and-variable-power-supply\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Analog Discovery 2<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"level1\">\n<div class=\"li\"><a class=\"urlextern\" title=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/waveforms-2015-download-only\/\" href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/waveforms-2015-download-only\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">WaveForms 2015 software<\/a>\u00a0(version 3.6.8 or newer is required)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"level1\">\n<div class=\"li\">A computer with a USB port<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"level1\">\n<div class=\"li\"><a class=\"urlextern\" title=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/analog-discovery-signal-cable-assembly-flywires\/\" href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/analog-discovery-signal-cable-assembly-flywires\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Flywires<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"level1\">\n<div class=\"li\">A\u00a0<a class=\"urlextern\" title=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/usb-a-to-micro-b-cable\/\" href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/shop\/usb-a-to-micro-b-cable\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">USB A to Micro B cable<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"level1\">\n<div class=\"li\">A load of interest to test and a resistor of a known value<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Next you will open the <a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/reference\/test-and-measurement\/guides\/waveforms-impedance-analyzer\">Impedance Analyzer<\/a> in WaveForms 2015 and select your instrumentation tool as well as the Impedance tool.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-23176\" src=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/2_-_initial_impedance_tool_look-600x379.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"379\" data-wp-pid=\"23176\" srcset=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/2_-_initial_impedance_tool_look-600x379.png 600w, https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/2_-_initial_impedance_tool_look-768x485.png 768w, https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/2_-_initial_impedance_tool_look-1024x646.png 1024w, https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/2_-_initial_impedance_tool_look-800x505.png 800w, https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/2_-_initial_impedance_tool_look.png 1566w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Once you have<a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/reference\/learn\/instrumentation\/tutorials\/ad2-impedance-analyzer\/start\"> adjusted the relevant settings\u00a0<\/a>it is time to set up the circuit.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00a0The Impedance Analyzer accepts two different arrangements for the load of interest and the reference resistor, and to get a clean impedance measurement, different reference resistors are recommended based on the capacitance and inductance of the load.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-23177\" src=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/low_pass_filter.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" data-wp-pid=\"23177\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/digilent.com\/reference\/learn\/instrumentation\/tutorials\/ad2-impedance-analyzer\/start\">tutorial<\/a> then goes on to show\u00a0the results of analyzing the circuit from 20\u00a0<abbr title=\"\" data-original-title=\"Hertz (times per second)\">Hz<\/abbr>\u00a0to 25\u00a0<abbr title=\"\" data-original-title=\"Megahertz (million times per second)\">MHz<\/abbr>\u00a0with a 10 k\u03a9 with a 100 samples per frequency point.<\/p>\n<p>Hopefully this overview is enough to get you familiar with and started with this useful tool. If you have any additional question please head over to the\u00a0<a class=\"urlextern\" title=\"https:\/\/forum.digilent.com\/forum\/8-scopes-instruments\/\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.digilent.com\/forum\/8-scopes-instruments\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Scopes and Instruments section of the Digilent Forum<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class='watch-action'><div class='watch-position align-left'><div class='action-like'><a class='lbg-style6 like-23175 jlk' data-task='like' data-post_id='23175' data-nonce='ca2469a96f' rel='nofollow'><img src='https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wti-like-post-pro\/images\/pixel.gif' title='Like' \/><span class='lc-23175 lc'>0<\/span><\/a><\/div><div class='action-unlike'><a class='unlbg-style6 unlike-23175 jlk' data-task='unlike' data-post_id='23175' data-nonce='ca2469a96f' rel='nofollow'><img src='https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wti-like-post-pro\/images\/pixel.gif' title='Unlike' \/><span class='unlc-23175 unlc'>0<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div> <div class='status-23175 status align-left'>Be the 1st to vote.<\/div><\/div><div class='wti-clear'><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Designing filters with tight specifications and\/or matching impedances? Then make sure to check out the Impedance Analyzer tool, and see if it can be useful to your project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":23177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4322,4312],"tags":[1736,2925],"ppma_author":[4485],"class_list":["post-23175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accessories","category-usb-scopes-analyzers-generators","tag-analog-discovery-2","tag-instrumentation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/low_pass_filter.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":4485,"user_id":36,"is_guest":0,"slug":"mirandamay7","display_name":"Miranda Hansen","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bcab037c32924b9f9b3ca4898e179f2764cb7d9a82aa2bd475170c8aaa884e1c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Hansen","last_name_2":"","first_name":"Miranda","first_name_2":"","job_title":"","description":"I enjoy creative writing, engineering, thinking, building, exploring and sharing with people.\r\nHuge aficionado of spending time thinking about things that \u201cdon\u2019t matter.\u201d \r\n I am very interested in unconstrained creativity. I love cross-discipline ideas and all of their integration into complete original systems.\r\n\r\nAnd I like things that do things."}],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23175"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32471,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23175\/revisions\/32471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23175"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=23175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}