Tektronix offers 28.6-Gbps BERTScope for IEEE 802.3ba, 32G Fibre Channel test

Tektronix Inc. has expanded the capabilities of its BERTScope Bit Error Rate Tester Series. The new Tektronix BSA286C BERTScope bit error rate tester offers standards-compliant testing up to 28.6 Gbps, including error detection, pattern generation, and clock recovery. The new offering should find use in the lab for both 100-Gigabit Ethernet testing to IEEE 802.3ba as well as 32G Fibre Channel applications.

The BSA286C BERTScope features what Tektronix asserts is an industry-leading sub-300-femtosecond intrinsic jitter noise floor. The instrument will support both BER test and root-cause PHY layer analysis.

Tektronix says that engineers can use the BSA286C in debugging applications to perform true jitter measurements on a variety of signals including low probability events, with the added ability to accurately decompose jitter into its random and deterministic components. In addition, the BSA286C shares with other Tektronix instruments a jitter decomposition model that separates bounded uncorrelated jitter (BUJ) for investigation into potential design problems related to crosstalk.

The instrument also was designed to support long PRBS31 strings as a continuous pattern, which obviates the need to use PRBS15 in a loopback configuration.

The BSA286C can be paired with the CR286A 28.6G Clock Recovery Module for a complete test setup, including an accurate “Golden PLL.”

“For 100G testing, PHY layer qualification at full data rate is crucial, especially as the field moves into more complex modulation formats,” said Michael Hochberg, director of the OpSIS silicon photonic prototyping service and a faculty member at the University of Delaware and at National University of Singapore, via a Tektronix press release. “One of the key challenges in this field is the complexity of test setup and creating a validation methodology; we've used BERTScopes in my lab and these systems are remarkably easy to use while providing very accurate BER and jitter measurement results.”

The BERTScope BSA286C is available for ordering now with prices starting at $347,000 MSRP for the new models. In addition, owners of Tektronix BSA260C BERTScopes can have Tektronix upgrade their instruments to the BSA286C configuration. Deliveries of new systems will begin in the fourth quarter of this year.

For more information on laboratory test equipment and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.