Tekronix' New 30 GHz Probing System For Gen4 Serial Data Measurements

For high-speed serial data standards, designers are employing differential signaling which can be more efficiently acquired on an oscilloscope using the mini-coaxial differential probing method being announced today. The new P7600 Series includes two direct connect 2.92mm coaxial inputs, enabling conversion of an incoming differential signal pair to a single oscilloscope input channel. This enables up to 30 GHz differential measurement capability on all 4 DPO/DSA73304D oscilloscope channels.

Efficient utilization of oscilloscope channels enables multi-lane serial bus acquisitions and/or simultaneous acquisition of high speed data alongside other system activity like 100 MHz reference clocks or chip-to-chip bus traffic like I2C. The P7600 Series also includes critical TriMode functionality that provides full support of differential measurements found in high-speed serial signals, along with independent single-ended and direct common mode measurements through the same probe connection. In addition, Tektronix also provides industry leading 30 GHz bandwidth for its solder-in connectors.

“TriMode probes have proven to be extremely popular among our customers because they enhance productivity – setting up a probe can be a time consuming activity and TriMode probes speed up signal acquisition,” said Brian Reich, general manager, Performance Oscilloscopes, Tektronix. “In addition to a broad family of TriMode probes, we now have the industry’s fastest TriMode probes and the ultra-high-performance oscilloscopes our customers need for their most demanding serial bus measurement challenges.”

TriMode probing improves productivity by reducing setup time on standards tests for serial buses like PCI Express, Serial Attached SCSI and Thunderbolt that require both common-mode and differential signaling measurements. With TriMode, only one connection to the DUT is needed. Switching between differential mode [A-B], single-ended mode [A-Gnd, B-Gnd], and common mode [((A+B)/2)-Gnd] is accomplished through a single button press.

To provide a clean frequency response through the probing system, the new P7600 Series TriMode probing system utilizes probe-specific S parameter data. When connected to a DSA/DPO70000D Series Oscilloscope, the probe transfers this data to the instrument to create a specific DSP bandpass filter. Probe specific filters are critical as bandwidth increases, because at 30GHz even small variations in the signal path can lead to significant variations in frequency response.

P7600 Series Probing Systems with TriMode capability are available to order now with deliveries starting in early Q1 2013. Pricing starts at € 22,300/£18,600.