Automotive debug options added to oscilloscopes

CAN FD is the next-generation, higher-performance serial bus protocol for automotive control and diagnostic applications. It allows engineers to reduce bus loads and increase throughput for today’s demanding automotive applications.

With “classic” CAN 2.0, transmission rates are limited to 1 Mbps because of the event-driven nature of this serial bus. With CAN FD, transmission rates increase during the data phase of each frame and maximum specified payload sizes are increased from 8 bytes up to 64 bytes. Moving from CAN 2.0 to CAN FD technology offers an easier and more seamless migration path compared with adopting other time-triggered serial bus protocols such as FlexRay.

With the higher data rates of CAN FD, using an oscilloscope to test and debug the signal integrity (physical layer) of these higher-speed signals is critical. Keysight’s new CAN FD triggering and decode capabilities in the InfiniiVision 4000 X-Series oscilloscopes rely on hardware-based decoding to enable the industry’s fastest decode update rates.

Faster waveform and decode update rates increase the scope’s probability of capturing random and infrequent errors. Detection and elimination of bus errors during the design phase is crucial for automotive safety.

In addition to the ability to quickly capture infrequent bus errors with hardware-based decoding, 4000 X-Series oscilloscopes provide an extensive CAN FD error triggering and analysis. This includes the ability to decode, totalise, and trigger on specific errors (optionally filtered by frame ID) such as stuff bit errors, form errors, CRC errors, acknowledge errors, and error frames.

SENT is a point-to-point serial bus that interfaces sensors to ECUs. Keysight’s new SENT option for InfiniiVision 4000 X-Series oscilloscopes provides decoding for serial data on fast and slow channels and offers extensive triggering selections, including the ability to trigger on various error conditions.