Agilent intros phase noise/spectral jitter analysis for DCA-J

JANUARY 25, 2007 -- A new optical/electrical module provides optical transmitter test and 40-Gbit/sec optical compliance test, say company representatives, while an advanced amplitude analysis option offers new methods for optical modulation amplitude and relative intensity noise.

Jan. 25, 2007

3 min read

JANUARY 25, 2007 -- Agilent Technologies Inc. (search for Agilent) this week introduced what it claims is an industry-first phase noise application software and options for the digital communications analyzer (search for DCA-J). The software allows phase noise/spectral jitter analysis of clock and data signals over a dynamic range of 50 Mbits/sec to 13.5 Gbits/sec. A new optical/electrical module provides optical transmitter test and 40-Gbit/sec optical compliance test, say company representatives. An advanced amplitude analysis option offers new methods for optical modulation amplitude and relative intensity noise.

Many serial bus architectures employ spread spectrum clocking for better signal integrity, known as electromagnetic interference (EMI) management. Hardware clock recovery elements of sampling oscilloscopes have not been able to follow the large amounts of jitter produced with spread spectrum clocks, making meaningful measurements virtually impossible. However, Agilent claims to have overcome this problem with the Agilent 83496B.

The 83496B and phase noise application software reveal root causes of jitter through frequency domain analysis -- an effective and easy method for detecting jitter sources, says the company. Also, the new software can perform the analysis on both clock and data signals, so the root causes of data jitter can be related to system clocks.

"This tool allows our customers to see the root causes of jitter, whereas other measurement tools are limited in dynamic range or in the types of signals they can observe," explains Sigi Gross, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Digital Verifications Solutions Division.

In addition, the DCA-J offers three new functionalities for optical applications:

40-Gbit/sec compliance with the Agilent 86116C optical/electrical module: The 86116C can be used as a 65-GHz oscilloscope channel or switched to a reference receiver for 40-Gbit/sec optical transmitter eye-mask test.
Carefully controlled frequency response allows operation as a reference receiver and provides consistent and accurate eye mask tests. It can be configured at standard or FEC rates for OC-768, STM-256 and related specifications.
Just as the DCA-J revolutionized jitter analysis, DCA-J option 300 provides the same industry-accepted analysis now translated into the amplitude domain, say Agilent representatives. This enables capabilities such as Relative Intensity Noise (RIN) measurement, a common specification for optical transmitters. Historically, RIN measurements have required expensive or complicated test equipment. Now with this software, eye-mask tests and RIN measurements can be performed quickly and accurately using the same equipment and at the same time. Option 300 also allows separation of interference parameters to extremely low probabilities, providing an accurate measurement of Q-factor, commonly used to estimate bit error ratio, says the company.
Easy OMA measurements for the 86100C DCA-J: Agilent's new Rev 7.0 firmware for the 86100C DCA-J enhances the system through a novel approach to the measurement of optical modulation amplitude (OMA), a common specification for optical transmitters. The general OMA test requires special data patterns. Agilent's 86100C provides the correct OMA result for these patterns and has the added flexibility to provide an accurate OMA result for virtually any data pattern. This flexibility eliminates the need to reconfigure the stimulus, saving measurement time for a complete characterization of the transceiver.

All products will be available February 1, 2007.

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