OK, I have recently acquired a TEK AWG 2021. I was interested in it because of the 250MHz bandwidth generation..lo and behold, TE really meant 250Ms/s.
top speed on all function generator features 2.5MHz
so how to get it faster??
after a lot of trial and error, I found an old floppy disk. formatted it, and began creating various wavefrom in the graphic mode
1. it defaults to 1000pt and 100MHz. I changed it to 64pts and 250MHz. (that is still only well do the math 250M/64...)
2. I then began entering one point high. (say1.5v) one point low(say.02v). I kept doing this until about 30 to 33pts. I stop there because for some reason it I continue doing the high low thing, the waveform stops displaying correctly and when I ran it, it was not a steady sine-wave.
3. I save the file and label it.(how a have a 64pt file with half of the file 1pt high low, and the rest flat line)
4. I then copied the file, renamed it and loaded it into the editor. I copied the 1st 30-32pt waveform created and added it to the end by pasting. added maybe one more cycle..or 32 +32 =64.
5. So now I have a AWG file that is a straight 2pt per wave.)
I then ran it and and varied the frequency through the clock speed
6. only the max was 125MHz. so how 250MHz??
7. I loaded the same file into both channels, offset the phase 180ยบ and connected the two channels into one output -input to a single channel.
result is a decent sine-wave at 250MHz...I still have to work out the correct termination though...I think I am supposed to use a pass through terminator..only I don't have one..
I just needed a basic fast sine wave, however, right now I feel the 2.5MHz limit on the standard function generator signals is mostly useless..and I am not too excited about creating a whole collection of basic waveforms with the AWG, just to support the function generator needs.
It also runs so hot in my tiny lab....Only $250 vs. over $1,000 for a Rigol or Siglent or giddy forbid a solid mainstream $$ brand..
I hope this helps for those that were struggling to get over 63MHz sine-wave output from one of these.