Pico Technology says scope exceeds best broadband real time scope
Suited to repetitive or clock-derived signals, the PicoScope 9404-16 16GHz sampler extended real time oscilloscope (SXRTO) joins the 5GHz 9404-05, launched earlier this year, by Pico Technology.
Both feature four high-resolution 12-bit channels, each supported by real-time sampling to 500 Msamples per second per channel and up to 5Tsamples per second (0.2pico seconds) equivalent-time sampling. According to Pico Technology, these voltage and timing resolutions match, or more typically exceed, the best available among broadband real-time oscilloscopes today.
The PicoScope 9404-16 SXRTO’s wide-band inputs, and fine timing and voltage resolutions, display and accurately measure transitions as fast as 22 pico seconds, pulses and impulses down to 45 pico seconds wide and allow clock performance and eye diagram analysis of up to 11Gbits per second Gbit signals (to third harmonic). Less than two pico seconds RMS trigger jitter and 5GHz trigger support margin analysis and characterisation of today’s high-speed serial data systems, whilst integrated clock and data recovery to 11Gbits per second and an external pre-scaled trigger input extend the SXRTO trigger capability to the full bandwidth of the 16GHz model, explains Pico Technology. In addition the real-time broadband sampling modes can support, for example, capture of carrier envelope, baseband modulation and other envelope tracking signals around amplify, route and transmit paths. This includes major wireless communication frequency bands such as 900MHz, 2.4GHz and 5.5GHz and upwards.
Pico’s SXRTO instrument architecture reduces the cost of broadband time-domain sampling for repetitive signal or clock-related applications. Pico’s SXRTO architecture samples at a more cost-effective lower rate of 500 Msamples per second and instead develops the equivalent time sampling (ETS) technique to achieve sample rate multiplication of x10,000 to five Tsamples per second. The lower-cost SXRTO architecture recognises that many high-bandwidth signals are or can be repetitive, avoiding the expense of high sampling rate instruments, claims Pico Technology.
Unlike sampling oscilloscopes, the ETS technique supports trigger and pre-trigger capture and the familiarity, convenience and ease of real-time oscilloscope operation. Pico’s SXRTO technology seamlessly transitions to single-event waveform capture at sampling rates at and below 500 Msamples per second and both sampling modes capture to memory of 250,000 samples (single channel). This is vital for the capture of slower system signals, modulation envelopes and repeating pulse or data patterns, for example.
This USB-controlled instrument is supplied with PicoSample 4 software. The touch-compatible graphic user interface (GUI) controls the instrument and presents waveforms, measurements and statistics on a preferred size and format of display. There is full support for available Windows display resolutions, allowing the inspection of waveform detail or presentation of measurements, for example on 4k monitors or projection, or across multiple monitors. Additionally, up to four independent zoomed trace views can fully reveal 12-bit, 250 ksample waveform detail.
Automated and user-configurable signal integrity measurements, mathematics, statistical views and limits test facilities are included for validation and trending of pulse and timing performance, jitter, RZ and NRZ eye diagrams. Industry-standard communications mask tests such as PCIe, GB Ethernet and Serial ATA are included as standard.
