MARCH 10, 2009 -- Agilent Technologies Inc. (search Lightwave for Agilent) has introduced the industry's first time-domain-based optical modulation analyzer designed to offer in-depth analysis of amplitude- and phase-modulated optical signals.
The analyzer is based on wide-bandwidth, polarization-diverse coherent optical receiver technology, the Agilent 89600 vector signal analysis software (VSA), and Agilent's high-speed real-time data acquisition unit, the Infiniium Series 90000 oscilloscope.
Agilent will unveil the N4391A in Booth 1719 at OFC/NFOEC 2009.
Advanced optical modulation schemes for 40- and 100-Gbps applications carry information in amplitude, phase, and polarization. To develop new optical transmitters and receivers, it is necessary to analyze amplitude and phase behavior of these signals in two orthogonal polarization states. Currently available test instruments are only capable of analyzing the amplitude of the optical signal, leaving a gap in the test instrument market.
The N4391A optical modulation analyzer is intended to close this gap by offering new analysis tools such as constellation plane display of the demodulated signal and error vector magnitude analysis displaying the error compared to an ideal signal.
"This is exactly the kind of test instrument that fills the gap for the optical industry, as engineers can now gain deep insight into the behavior of transmitters and links operating with advanced optical modulation schemes," said Niall Robinson, vice president of product marketing at Mintera Corp.
Features of the Agilent N4391A optical modulation analyzer include:
- optical coherent receiver supporting >100G transmission rates
- full support of DPSK/DQPSK, including polarization multiplexing
- optical receiver bandwidth >37 GHz (74 GHz optical)
- choice of 34 digital modulation formats
- choice of 20 customizable data-analysis tools.
The Agilent N4391A optical modulation analyzer may be ordered starting in April 2009; shipments will begin September 2009. Pricing starts at $195,000.
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