{"id":23175,"date":"2017-12-11T08:26:48","date_gmt":"2017-12-11T16:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.digilentinc.com\/?p=23175"},"modified":"2021-06-10T16:10:22","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T23:10:22","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 Impedance Analyzer) 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 Impedance Analyzer 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 Impedance Analyzer 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='8208653786' 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='8208653786' 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":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"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","1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":"","9":"","10":""}],"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":0,"href":"https:\/\/digilent.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23175\/revisions"}],"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}]}}