LeCroy pushes RT DSO bandwidth war to 65 GHz, works on 100 GHz for 2013

Dan Strassberg, Contributing Technical Editor - May 9, 2012

On April 24, only 13 days after Agilent Technologies had announced the availability of 63-GHz bandwidth (–3-dB- bandwidth) in its Infiniium 90000Q RT DSO (real-time sampling digital-storage-oscilloscope) line, LeCroy revealed that its 10Zi series of LabMaster modular DSO systems would henceforth offer a 65-GHz bandwidth acquisition module. A mere two months earlier, LeCroy had brought forth the 10Zi line with an industry-leading maximum bandwidth of only 60 GHz.

The company ascribed its ability to offer the even-higher bandwidth to better-than-expected performance of the proprietary Si-Ge (Silicon-Germanium) ICs on which the 10Zi’s operation depends. Perhaps even more significantly, LeCroy accompanied its announcement of the increased bandwidth with the news that it is working toward offering a 100-GHz bandwidth LabMaster acquisition module in 2013.

A 100-GHz LabMaster would not be LeCroy’s first scope to achieve such bandwidth. It would, however, be its first (and presumably the industry’s first) real-time DSO with such bandwidth. Approximately five years ago, LeCroy introduced the WaveExpert sequential-sampling-scope system, which offers 100-GHz bandwidth—but only for repetitive (albeit not necessarily periodic) signals.

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