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Up to the job?
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09/03/2006
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The demands made by multi gigahertz designs are pushing test boundaries and test vendors have responded with an impressive array of high bandwidth instrumentation. In particular, there are 20GHz plus ’scopes that cater to the ‘rule of thumb’ that says an oscilloscope’s bandwidth needs to be four times the fundamental frequency of the signal under test.
However, reality is that, whilst performance is important, it isn’t everything – more complex designs require flexible, easy to use test equipment that allows a user to investigate cause and effect relationships, without fully knowing what they are looking for.
In recent months, each of the main ’scope vendors has launched products that set out to address common test challenges such as: mixed signal design, with the complex interactions this brings; serial buses; and the ever present pressure to deliver more with less equipment.
Recent offerings include: the 350 to 1GHz DPO4000 ’scope and 500 to 2.5GHz DPO7000 from Tektronix, targeted at embedded system test; LeCroy’s WaveRunner Xi and WaveSurfer Xs series, currently available in 400 and 600MHz bandwidths; and Agilent’s mid range 600 to 1GHz Infiniium 8000 ’scope and the 2 to 13GHz Infiniium 80000B, the latter targeted at debug of advanced embedded designs.
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Author
Graham Pitcher
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