The deliberate design improvement in the 9500C / 9540C (or 9540A) system allows customers to maintain compliance with the published specifications by purchasing the specified replacement interconnecting cables (and output connectors) directly from Fluke and replacing them in the field. From the usr manual: 'Serviceability has been improved by making cables and output connectors customer/field replaceable. No longer does the head need to be sent in for service when these components wear during normal usage, the new design allows you to take care of it in the moment.”
This is a clear upgrade from the previous-generation 9500B, where connector replacement on the active head required specialized tools and calibration equipment, thus requiring the head to be returned to a Fluke service center.
How the signal path and cable replacement work:/msdyn_blobfile/$value)
When you replace the cables with the exact Fluke-specified replacements you will get:
This is a clear upgrade from the previous-generation 9500B, where connector replacement on the active head required specialized tools and calibration equipment, thus requiring the head to be returned to a Fluke service center.
How the signal path and cable replacement work:
- The 9500C main unit generates the base signals (including leveled sine up to 4.2 GHz, DC/square, edges, etc.).
- These signals travel to the 9540C/9540A Active Head via two interconnecting cables:
1) A coaxial RF/signal cable (Fluke part 5599594 – “Output cable for Active Head”).
2) A 10-way control/power umbilical cable (Fluke part 5209782 – “Control cable for Active Head”).
- The Active Head then processes/routs the signal locally at the DUT input (it contains attenuators, relays, wide-band components, and output circuitry that generates/supports the fast edges and controls amplitude). This eliminates long intervening cables that would otherwise degrade high-frequency performance.
When you replace the cables with the exact Fluke-specified replacements you will get:
- Frequency response and insertion loss remain within the published specifications because you are using identical standardized cables of the same length, type, and quality as the original calibrated setup.
- No additional compensation or recalibration is needed. The Active Head stores its own calibration corrections and characterization data (independent of the interconnect cables), and the overall system specifications already account for the use of these specific cables.