test&measurementZONE Products for the week of January 29, 2007

Agilent Technologies Says . . .
86100C Infiniium DCA-J Firmware: Phase Noise/Spectral Jitter Analysis For Digital Communications Analyzer
Modules, Software Enable Advanced Device Characterization and Signal Integrity Insight for High-Speed Digital Designers, Manufacturers

Agilent Technologies Inc. introduced industry-first phase noise application software and options for the digital communications analyzer (DCA-J). The software allows phase noise/spectral jitter analysis of clock and data signals over a wide dynamic range of 50 Mb/s to 13.5 Gb/s. A new optical/electrical module provides optical transmitter test and 40 Gb/s optical compliance test; an advanced amplitude analysis option offers new methods for optical modulation amplitude and relative intensity noise.

These enhancements prove the DCA-J's leading-edge performance and capabilities as an affordable, comprehensive, easy-to-use sampling scope for optical and electrical applications.

The Agilent 83496B Clock Recovery Module for Phase Noise/Spectral Jitter Analysis
The multi-rate wide loop bandwidth clock recovery module allows precision waveform measurements with a variety of signals, including spread spectrum clocked. This is the industry's first phase noise application software, which allows phase noise/spectral jitter analysis of clock and data signals ranging from 50 Mb/s to 13.5 Gb/s.

Many serial bus architectures employ spread spectrum clocking for better signal integrity, known as electromagnetic interference (EMI) management. Hardware clock recovery elements of sampling oscilloscopes have not been able to follow the large amounts of jitter produced with spread spectrum clocks, making meaningful measurements virtually impossible. This has been overcome with the Agilent 83496B.

The 83496B and phase noise application software reveal root causes of jitter through frequency domain analysis -- an effective and easy method for detecting jitter sources. Also, this solution can perform the analysis on both clock and data signals, so the root causes of data jitter can be related to system clocks.

"This tool allows our customers to see the root causes of jitter, whereas other measurement tools are limited in dynamic range or in the types of signals they can observe," said Sigi Gross, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Digital Verifications Solutions Division.

EN-Genius Says...

The phase noise/jitter spectrum analysis capabilities of the 86100C wide-bandwidth oscilloscope are unique. The PLL of the 83496B module is used as a jitter demodulator, monitoring the loop error signal and converting it into the frequency domain. This allows for the jitter spectrum to be monitored and analyzed over a span of 300 Hz to 20 MHz.

Both clocks and signals can be observed so the ratio of data-to-clock jitter can also be observed. Specific PLL frequency responses can alter the jitter spectrum and all the results can be combined to estimate totals over a specific span. The behavior of the jitter in clock and data allow for analysis of the origins of the jitter.

The upgraded "B" version of the 83496 provides for a spreadsheet analysis of phase noise of both clock and data with a PC communicating with the 86100C mainframe using either the GPIB or USB interface.

The instrument jitter of the mainframe integrated over 10 kHz to 20 MHz is less than 100 fs. This allows for very high sensitivities over that span and displays can be in either seconds or dBc/Hz. Spread spectrum clocks can be locked onto with >0.5% frequency deviation. Data rates can be from 50 Mbit/s to 13.5 Gbit/s and clock rates can be from 25 MHz to 6.75 GHz.

The DCA-J (the J is for jitter) also adds extra functionality for optical applications, and relative intensity noise (RIN) measurements remove the need for some very expensive -- and difficult to repeat -- testing systems. There is also a very novel approach to optical modulation amplitude (OMA) allowing for accurate results for virtually any data pattern.

The enhancements to the 86100C Infiniium DCA-J turn it into an extremely effective instrument with four completely separate functionalities: a general-purpose wideband sampling oscilloscope; a digital communications analyzer; a TDR; a precision jitter analyzer. It will continue to be extremely successful and a very sought-after instrument in the lab.

All products will be available February 2007. The 83496B will be priced from $18,500; the 86116C from $64,089; 86100C Option 300 software (requires Option 200) $2800; firmware revision 7.0 (not compatible with 86100A or 86100B mainframes -- which can be upgraded) will be downloadable, free, from the web.

Firmware Literature