WaveMaster 830Zi-LeCroy Introduced 30 GHz / 4 Channel Real-Time Oscilloscope Solution

LeCroy Corporation has extended the power of its WaveMaster 830Zi 30 GHz real-time oscilloscope by providing a simple and fast method to combine two oscilloscopes and provide 4 channels at 30 GHz. This solution is ideal for measurement and analysis of 28 to 56 Gb/s IQ modulated signals where ultra-high real-time bandwidth and four channels is required, or for capture and detailed analysis of other leading edge technologies. The solution is enabled with the Zi-8CH-SYNCH Oscilloscope Synchronization Kit, which is compatible with all WaveMaster 8 Zi models, so it may be used to create four channel data captures from 20GHz to 30GHz or eight channel data captures from 4GHz to 16GHz.

The oscilloscope synchronization kit is comprised of a small hardware module that plugs into one of the two oscilloscopes. Once attached, it identifies that oscilloscope as the “Master” for display and control purposes. A variety of other cables for trigger synchronization, clock sharing, and data transfer are connected between the “Master” and a “Slave” oscilloscope. Triggering of both oscilloscopes may be performed in a pseudo-auto trigger mode, or by application of a customer trigger signal. Upon successful trigger, all waveforms from both the “Master” and the “Slave” oscilloscope are displayed on the “Master” oscilloscope grid for easy viewing, debug and analysis. The complete setup time is no less than 5 minutes prior to deskewing channels.
30 GHz Real-Time Bandwidth on 4 Channels Supports New High Speed Technology Research

At the European Conference and Exhibition on Optical Communication (ECOC) held in September 2009, a research team led by Dr. Peter Winzer of Alcatel-Lucent presented a paper regarding an experiment which used the WaveMaster 830 Zi 4 channel / 30 GHz capability to reach record-breaking signal transmission speeds that sent data at twice the rate as the previous record. The experiment demonstrated the first 56-Gbaud coherent detection with full digital impairment compensation to be transmitted over a single-channel. The large bandwidth and high sampling rate of the WaveMaster 830 Zi over 4 channels were key enablers of this experiment and the signal fidelity over such a wide bandwidth was critical to achieving the demonstrated performance.

The LeCroy WaveMaster 830 Zi oscilloscope was launched on January 5, 2009 as the second product line developed from LeCroy's next-generation Apollo chipset. The scope features a real-time bandwidth of 30 GHz and a sampling rate of 80 Gigasamples/second on two channels. The complete acquisition system used in the Alcatel-Lucent experiment used two WaveMaster 830 Zi oscilloscopes for a total of 4 channels at 30 GHz.