S-52
The Tektronix S-52 is a pulse generator head compatible with S-series sampling units like the 3S2, 7S11, and 7S12. It puts out a 200mV pulse into a load of 50 ohms. The pulse has a rise-time of 25 ps or less. The output is an SMA connector. In addition to the main pulse output, the S-52 also produces a pretrigger pulse 85 ns before the main pulse. The jitter between the pretrigger pulse and the main pulse is specified as less than 10 ps. The pretrigger pulse uses an BSM connector.
The S-52 generates the main output pulse using a tunnel diode with part number 153-0400-00. The S-52 is similar to the S-50, but the S-50 has twice the pulse amplitude. The reason for this is that the S-52 has a 48-ohm resistor between the output tunnel diode and the output connector, while the S-50 has no such resistor. Although the S-52 produces a smaller pulse, its output impedance is much better controlled than that of the S-50, and the output resistor may also provide some limited protection for the output tunnel diode.
