What is a pulse generator?
A pulse generator is a piece of electronic test equipment that engineers use to generate rectangular pulses. An electromagnetic pulse generator is best for digital, not analog, circuits. Engineers can inject pulses into a piece of equipment under test as a stimulus as they test the device, using pulses to confirm the equipment’s proper operation. Outside the electronics industry, there are applications for pulse generator circuits in fields such as chemistry, physics, and health care.
What does a pulse generator do?
It generates pulses specific to an application by allowing the user to vary:
- Length
- Delay
- Repetition Rate
- Amplitude
In many cases, an application needs a TTL pulse (square waveform) to drive a logic circuit. Sometimes they are referred to as TTL pulse generators. The generated pulse conforms to the TTL standard of 0V and 5V. There are times where multiple pulses are needed to run tests and there are a number of multiple channel units available.
Applications and Industries
These pieces of test equipment can be used in Automatic Test Equipment (ATE), Avionics and radar testing, switching power supply testing, characterization of active components, any application where a trigger signal is needed to stimulate a digital circuit.
Industries that use them include: electronics industry, chemistry, physics, education, health care and many more.
Popular Manufacturers
Many companies make different types of pulse generators.