News and New Products

20-GHz-bandwidth real-time-sampling digital scopes boast performance improvements, new features

By Dan Strassberg, Contributing Technical Editor -- EDN, 1/21/2009

Tektronix has announced the availability of the high-performance DPO70000B DPOs (digital phosphor oscilloscopes) and DSA70000B DSAs (digital serial analyzers). Offering the highest four-channel bandwidth in real-time oscilloscopes, the new B models also provide greater ENOB (effective number of bits) than did their predecessors. Adding to the innovative Pinpoint Trigger system, the new models also provide hardware-based pattern triggering for advanced serial-data-bus speeds to 5 Gbps.

In addition, new upgrade options through the Tektronix SpeedBooster upgrade program enable B series users to upgrade their scopes’ bandwidth from 4 GHz to 6, 8, 12.5, 16, and 20 GHz, enabling engineers to minimize their initial investment by purchasing only the instrument bandwidth they need today but to easily increase that bandwidth as test requirements change in the future.

New generations of consumer, computing, and communications technology use faster and wider information buses and interconnects. High-performance oscilloscopes must capture the harmonic frequencies of high-speed signals to make accurate and repeatable measurements. All channels of the DPO/DSA70000B oscilloscopes simultaneously support high bandwidth, deep memory, fast sample rate, and fast waveform capture. You can use the units to debug signals whose data rates are as high as 12 Gbps on each of four lanes. This capability is ideal for use in developing and testing multilane, high-speed serial-data applications, including PCIe (peripheral-component-interconnect express) 3, 6-Gbps SATA (serial advanced-technology attachment), SuperSpeed USB (universal serial bus), HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface), DisplayPort, and Ethernet.

The DPO/DSA70000B oscilloscopes provide scalable performance with 4-, 6-, 8-, 12.5-, 16-, and 20-GHz models. The 20-GHz DSA72004B performs fifth-harmonic measurements on signals carrying data at 8 Gbps and third-harmonic measurements at data rates to 12 Gbps. This performance satisfies the signal-integrity measurement and compliance requirements of the latest third-generation serial-bus architectures. The FastAcq acquisition mode provides a capture rate greater than 300,000 waveforms/sec—about 100 times as fast as competing alternatives—delivering both critical insight into signal behavior and in-depth analysis.

The DPO/DSA70000B Series maximize design margins by providing exceptionally high signal integrity and fidelity. End-to-end bandwidth from the probe tip to the oscilloscope uses Tektronix TriMode Probes, ensuring signal integrity. With these matching probes, customers obtain full system bandwidth from the probe tip. The units achieve signal fidelity through what the manufacturer calls the industry's lowest noise floor, flattest frequency response, lowest jitter-measurement floor, and lowest trigger jitter. Vertical noise performance has improved over previous models by 1 to 2 dB at all vertical settings.

The DSA70000B models provide hardware-based real-time serial-pattern triggering to 5 Gbps for NRZ (non-return-to-zero) and 8- and 10-bit serial streams. This hardware-trigger capability, along with the Protocol Trigger and Decode application, saves time in debugging and diagnostic work on new high-speed standards by guaranteeing the capture of the first occurrence of a data bus’s bit sequence. Some competing approaches use postprocessing to find the pattern after completing the acquisition. This approach, says Tektronix, can require many acquisitions to find the desired pattern.

The P7500 TriMode probe family now offers performance probes for 4-, 6-, and 8-GHz probes in addition to the previously announced 13-, 16-, and 20-GHz probes. The P7500 Series allows customers to—at the push of a button—quickly and easily switch between high-speed serial differential, single-ended, and common-mode measurements without reconfiguring probe connections to the device under test. All TriMode probes share an expanded set of connectivity accessories, including mobile probing for handheld and fixtured applications; new high-performance, low-cost detachable solder-in connections, which are ideal for probing memory devices; and extended-length, high-temperature probes to address extreme environmental testing. With these options, you can now choose the price, performance, and application combination that best meets your needs.

Tektronix also offers several software packages for high-speed serial-data-link design, debugging, and compliance verification. These packages include DPOJet for jitter and timing analysis, SDLA (serial-data-link analysis) for testing transmitters, interconnects, and receivers, and standard-specific packages for DDR, DisplayPort, PCIe, USB, HDMI, SATA, Ethernet, FibreChannel, and others. Suggested US list prices begin at $53,300 for the 4-GHz-bandwidth DPO70404B.