Power rail probe bandwidth increased to 4GHz

23rd January 2018

Mick Elliott

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Datasheet

Power supply quality is a key factor in the functionality and performance of sensitive electronic circuits. Embedded designs with incorporated RF modules face the additional risk that RF signals are coupled onto the power rails of sensitive electronic components such as microprocessors, fast memory components and sensitive analogue circuits, impairing the functionality of the device.

The R&S RT-ZPR40 offers a 4GHz bandwidth with a direct SMA connection or a 50 Ω pigtail coax connection to uncover such problems. The probe is ideal for use with the 4GHz and 6GHz R&S RTO2000 oscilloscopes.

This combination allows the user to take advantage of the oscilloscope’s powerful FFT functionality and serial protocol decoding.

Joerg Fries, Vice President Market Segments for T&M at Rohde & Schwarz, states: “The 4GHz probe enables scope users to find EMI issues on power rails that they were previously unable to isolate.” If 4GHz bandwidth is not necessary, the R&S RT-ZPR20 probe with 2 GHz bandwidth is an attractive alternative.

The R&S RT-ZPR40 and R&S RT-ZPR20 probes both offer exceptionally low inherent noise and highest sensitivity with an attenuation factor of 1:1.

With their offset capability, the probes can measure at offset voltages up to 60 V, making them suitable for a wide variety of power rails.

The integrated high-precision DC voltmeter verifies DC tolerance windows while simultaneously measuring the power supply's DC component with 0.1% accuracy.

Both the reading and the signal voltage are transmitted to the oscilloscope and displayed. This allows users to measure the DC level and ripple in parallel when qualifying power supplies for highly sensitive electronic components such as CPUs and FPGAs.

They see at a glance whether the ripple voltages lie within the often very tight power supply tolerances.