FEBRUARY 10, 2010 -- LeCroy Corp. has extended the capabilities of its WaveMaster 830Zi 30-GHz real-time oscilloscope by providing what it describes as a simple and fast method to combine two oscilloscopes and provide four channels at 30 GHz. This approach enables measurement and analysis of 28- to 56-Gbps 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 new capability is enabled via the Zi-8CH-SYNCH Oscilloscope Synchronization Kit, which LeCroy says is compatible with all WaveMaster 8 Zi models, so it may be used to create four-channel data captures from 20 GHz to 30 GHz or eight-channel data captures from 4 GHz to 16 GHz.
The oscilloscope synchronization kit comprises 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, according to LeCroy. The complete setup time is no more than 5 minutes prior to deskewing channels.
Support for 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 describing an experiment that used the WaveMaster 830 Zi four-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 four channels were key enablers of this experiment and the signal fidelity over such a wide bandwidth was critical to achieving the demonstrated performance, LeCroy asserts. 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 four channels at 30 GHz.
The Zi-8CH-SYNCH Oscilloscope Synchronization Kit requires software version 6.0.1.x (or later), but otherwise does not require any further modification or addition to a previously purchased oscilloscope, according to LeCroy. Delivery time is 3-4 weeks ARO.