Scopes bring highest accuracy to high-bandwidth measurement

With bandwidths to 33 GHz, the DPO/DSA70000D Series oscilloscopes provide a critical feature rarely found in such high-performance instruments: high accuracy. In fact, the series lays claim to the title “The World’s Most Accurate Oscilloscope.” In practical terms, that means designers can examine ever-shrinking signals and know that what they see is what they are really getting.

The four-channel 25- and 33-GHz instruments can sample at up to 50 Gsamples/s on all channels or 100 Gsamples/s on two channels, allowing 10-Tsample equivalent time sampling (50 times greater than the nearest competitor) and supporting optical modulation analysis and SerDes validation for high-frequency signals. Digital-phosphor-oscilloscope (DPO) versions have a base memory of 10 Msamples, while the digital-serial-analyzer version have a base memory of 31 Msamples; memory is expandable in both versions to hundreds of megasamples.

With regard to accuracy, the scopes can resolve 9 ps, enabling them to characterize today’s sub-20-ps rise-time signals, and have input sensitivity of 62.5 mV full scale, or 6.25 mV/div, for better visibility of low-amplitude signaling common in LVDS-based standards. This performance is made possible by using 33-GHz preamp and track-and-hold devices manufactured using IBM’s 8HP SiGe process, which allows high-speed bipolar transistors to be fabricated directly on the same die as standard CMOS.

For faster analysis and data access, the scopes provide 8b/10b serial decode, fast waveform data transfer within the instrument, and new custom region-based qualification using Visual Trigger capability. The updated DPOJET Jitter & Timing Analysis toolset will support determination of Bounded Uncorrelated Jitter (BUJ), an important element of total jitter that results from crosstalk on signals greater than 10 Gbits/s.

DataStore, an advanced data processing pathway, lets users employ third-party tools like MATLAB or Microsoft’s .NET languages to insert waveform-data-processing algorithms directly into the scope’s application and display system. Also, the scopes can work with Optametra’s Coherent Lightwave Signal Analyzer for visualization and measurement of optical PM-QPSK or QAM16 and other complex-modulated signals. (From $211,000 — available beginning in Q4 2011.)

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