Liquid Instruments announced that it will release an array of software updates to its Moku:Go and Moku:Pro devices, which the company will exhibit at the 2023 SPIE Photonics West Conference. Moku:Go is Liquid Instruments’ complete portable engineering lab solution, and Moku:Pro is its most powerful solution designed for higher-bandwidth research. 

 Traditional test and measurement hardware is bulky and expensive, creating unnecessary challenges for scientists and engineers seeking to do their jobs efficiently and effectively. Thanks to the power and flexibility of software-defined instrumentation, Liquid Instruments has disrupted this space by making test equipment more affordable, versatile, and easy to use. The company’s modern, FPGA-based devices offer 10+ professional-grade instruments on one piece of hardware and can be reconfigured quickly as needed. Over-the-air updates allow test engineers to instantly upgrade their equipment to add more functionality as the software evolves.

 The latest enhancements to Moku:Go and Moku:Pro will bring increased efficiency and an elevated user experience to scientists, engineers, and students. “Liquid Instruments is committed to producing groundbreaking products that are intuitive, practical, convenient, and affordable to accelerate engineering progress for the world’s most seminal scientific research,” said Daniel Shaddock, co-founder and CEO of Liquid Instruments. “Our latest updates for Moku:Go and Moku:Pro give users across education, aerospace, defense, semiconductor, LiDAR, and quantum more options for advanced research and a smoother experience overall. These updates also underscore the value of software-defined instrumentation, which enables us to quickly bolster our platform, so our customers consistently have access to the latest and best instruments on the market.”

 New software updates to the Moku:Go and Moku:Pro products include:

• Laser Lock Box (LLB) desktop capability
  • The LLB will be available on desktop, providing easy laser locking at the lowest price on the market. For cost-sensitive customers, this will enable staged locking with customizable steps (e.g., enabling integrators) and workflow integration with desktop application support for Windows or macOS. With desktop usability for the LLB being introduced, less experienced users will especially benefit from the simplified process. Locking a laser is typically a procedure, rather than an action. In the previous LLB interface, customers needed to have a procedure either in their head or written on a piece of paper, giving the order in which they turned features on and off to bring their system into lock. The new staged locking interface allows users to codify the procedure inside the desktop application, greatly simplifying the act of locking, especially in constrained environments where iPad usage is unavailable. 
• Automatic output amplitude adjustment with Frequency Response Analyzer (FRA)
  • The FRA offered in both the Moku:Go and Moku:Pro products will now offer saturation warnings and dynamic amplitude adjustment, which will optimize amplitude automatically for top of the line dynamic range throughout sweeps for all channels independently. This new feature will prove useful for characterizing electrical components, circuits, and systems under test with the highest fidelity, as well as quickly obtaining a systems response to stimuli in both magnitude and phase with a high dynamic range of approximately 150 dB. In complex or highly resonant systems, the FRA’s newest update will enable entry-level users to take less erroneous measurements with more confidence, as opposed to saturating inputs in the lab. 
• Waveform Generator introduces Gaussian noise and new features for PID Controller
  • Gaussian noise will now be available for both the Moku:Go and Moku:Pro Waveform Generator by combining the two with custom bitstreams created using Moku Cloud Compile. This new feature will enable a more powerful solution for control systems when using pulse-width modulation (PWM) in conjunction with the PID Controller. Users can characterize the behavior of their systems in different environments using Multi-instrument Mode. While a motor driver was previously required to convert, the PWM option combined with the PID Controller will now offer ease to both products’ interface with a wider range of devices. 
• API data streaming
  • The Data Logger in both Moku:Go and Moku:Pro can now stream data to each user directly over the network at data rates of up to 0.5 MSa/s for Moku:Go, and 10 MSa/s for Moku:Pro. API data streaming is available in the standalone Data Logger instrument and in any instrument with an embedded data logger. This software update allows users to monitor and record crucial data from various sensor types (temperature, environmental, etc.). 
  • API data streaming will allow users to stream data straight to a network disk, removing internal memory or SSD size limitations. Additionally, this new feature will simplify running scripted measurements, with data available to script in real time. From here, the script can create live graphs, make real-time measurements, and even build up images as they’re scanned in microscopy applications. 
• Finite Impulse Response (FIR) Filter Builder
  • The FIR Filter Builder will now be available on Moku:Pro, which will allow advanced users to design and implement lowpass, highpass, bandpass, and bandstop FIR filters with up to 14,819 coefficients. The Moku:Pro desktop interface will allow users to fine-tune a filter’s response in the frequency and time domains to suit a specific application, enabling users to select between four frequency response shapes, five common impulse responses, and up to eight window functions. With the FIR Filter, Moku users can implement much sharper cut-offs and arbitrary transfer functions, and can have linear phase, which provides an extra arrow in the quiver for customers who need to pre- or post-process their signals.

To see the latest updates to the Moku product series in-person, stop by Liquid Instruments’ booth (#3270) at the 2023 SPIE Photonics West Conference from January 31 to February 2 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. Liquid Instruments will be conducting product demos to explain how to operate an interferometer using the Moku Phasemeter function, as well as how to utilize the FRA dynamic amplitude feature. 

Liquid Instruments will also be hosting an exclusive happy hour event at the company’s booth on February 1 from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. Conference visitors can RSVP for the happy hour event here, and sign up for a chance to win a free Moku:Go here. Entrants must be present at the happy hour event to win.