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Overcome High-Speed Analog Measurement Challenges

Presenter

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Agenda

High-Speed Test Challenges Oscilloscope/Digitizer Performance Requirements Automated Test Challenges Addressing Automated Test Challenges With the Industrys Highest Performance PXI Digitizers

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High-Speed Test Challenges

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Transitioning to GHz Signal Speeds

100.0

Physical Signaling- Gbps

Faster data rates

2.5 Gbps, 3.125 Gbps,

OC768 10 GbE OC192 XFI SXI, TFI OC48 4G FibreChannel XAUI Rapid IO 2G FibreChannel InfiniBand Rambus 800 Mhz RSL OC12/ST3 HyperTransport CEI
ShortReach

CEI
Long Reac h

10.0

6.25 Gbps
Multiple data lanes

SATA III (6 Gb) PCI Express II (5-6 Gb) SATA II (3 Gb) PCI Express 1394b SATA II
(1.5Gb)

1.0

1394b (400 Mbps) GbE (1000BaseT) 100BaseT

Optical Electrical

0.1 0.011990 1992

Greater design complexity Circuit performance

Circuit density and power

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2004

2006

2008

Open standards
Interoperability is key to success
Compliance test requirements

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There are two kinds of designers . . . those that have signal integrity problems . . . and those that will.
Sun Microsystems

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High-Speed Test Challenges

Signal integrity is critical Circuit board traces become transmission lines Impedance discontinuities along the signal path:
Create reflections
Degrade signal edges
Source: EE Times survey

Increase crosstalk

EMI goes up

Ground bounce increases with higher current

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What Is Signal Integrity?

The term integrity means complete and unimpaired.
A digital signal with good integrity has:

Clean, fast transitions Stable, valid logic levels Accurate placement in time Free of transients

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Measuring Signal Integrity

Visual tool to observe signal integrity on a clocked bus, usually measured using an oscilloscope/digitizer Eye Diagram

Overlays waveform traces from many successive unit intervals

Signal integrity factors cause blur: Jitter (horizontal) Noise (vertical)

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Oscilloscopes/Digitizers Provide Insight Into the Analog Domain

Displays waveform details, edges, and noise Detects and displays transients
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Precisely measures timing relationships

Oscilloscope/Digitizer Performance Requirements

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Signal Integrity Versus Signal Fidelity

Signal integrity: Is my circuit operating as expected?

Signal fidelity: Can I trust my measurement system to give an accurate representation of my signal?

How do you know if your measurement setup provides good signal fidelity?
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Measurement Bandwidth
Oscilloscope Bandwidth Must have sufficient bandwidth to capture highfrequency components Bandwidth specified at -3 dB point
Bandwidth

>5

th

Harmonic

The 5 Times Rule For less than 2 percent measurement error

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Sample Rate
Sample Rate Determines how frequently an oscilloscope takes a sample Faster sample rate, greater resolution and waveform detail Wider margins in production test may demand less oversampling Required Sample Rate
Sample Rate

>

2.5 X

fHighest

Sample Rate

>

10 X

fHighest

For sin(x)/x interpolation

For linear interpolation

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Vertical Resolution
Vertical resolution refers to how many different voltage changes you can measure
Amplitude (V) 10.00 8.75 7.50 6.25 5.00 3.75 2.50 1.25 0
| |

111 110 101 100 011 010 001 000

| | |

16-bit resolution 3-bit resolution

50

100 Time (ms)

150

200

However vertical resolution alone doesnt tell the whole story!

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Characterizing Acquisition Performance

Sources of Error Differential Nonlinearity Integral Nonlinearity Missing Codes Aperture Uncertainty Noise
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How do we characterize the impact of these error sources?

Effective Number of Bits (ENOB)

Characterizes how closely a digitized waveform actually represents the analog input signal

Higher effective number of bits provides better voltage resolution

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ENOB: Figure of Merit for High-Speed Digitizers

Why use ENOB? Indicates the impact of noise and distortion sources across signal frequencies ENOB typically degrades with increasing signal frequency Accounts for all of the following error sources: Differential nonlinearity Integral nonlinearity Missing codes Aperture uncertainty Noise
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Value of Looking Into ENOB

Which would you expect to provide better vertical resolution?
Analog Bandwidth Sample Rate Vertical Resolution Form Factor Sampling Jitter RMS Noise ENOB NI PXIe-5185/86 3 GHz and 5 GHz 12.5 GS/s 8-bit ADC 3U PXI Express 500 fs RMS 0.35% full scale 6 bits at 2.5 GHz 5.5 bits at 5 GHz Digitizer A 3 GHz 8 GS/s 10-bit ADC 6U CompactPCI 1200 fs RMS Not specified 4.5 bits at 1.8 GHz Digitizer B 1.5 GHz 4 GS/s 10-bit ADC 3U PXI 1200 fs RMS 0.5% full scale Not specified above 410 MHz

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ENOB for High Speed Measurements

Input the same 5 Gbit/s signal to both instruments High ENOB translates into more margin and better repeatability! Vendor A 11.4 ps 521 mV

Measurement Vendor T TIE Jitter Eye Height 3.08 ps 582 mV

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Automated Test Challenges

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Test Throughout the Development Cycle

R&D

Validation

Production Test

Customized measurements

A digitizer provides Oscilloscopes features optimized for Quick Visualization automated test
Interactive Use High Bandwidth

Hybrid

The digitizing oscilloscope Modular Digitizers provides insight into the High Throughput analog domain.
Integration Compact Size

Systems

Very High Bandwidth (multi-GHz)

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Automated Test Challenges

System Integration Combining driver software

vendors Sharing of clocks and triggers Future-proofing for upgraded capability Synchronizing channels in large systems

from multiple

Reduced Test Times Peripheral buses not optimized for throughput

or latency Limited Rack Space Stand-alone oscilloscopes can consume 7U to 8U of rack space Power Constraints

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Addressing Automated Test Challenges With the Industrys Highest Performance PXI Digitizers

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Industrys Highest Performance PXI Digitizers

Bandwidth
Sample Rate Channels Vertical Resolution

NI PXIe-5185 NI PXIe-5186 3 GHz 5 GHz 12.5 GS/s (1 ch) 6.25 GS/s (2 ch) 2
8-Bit ADC

Data Throughput Form Factor

>700 MB/s 3-Slot, 3U PXI Express

Codeveloped by NI and Tektronix

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Superior Acquisition Performance

State-of-the-art SiGe analog-to-digital converters and frontend ASICs designed by Tektronix, manufactured by IBM Same core technology is deployed across Tektronix oscilloscopes offering

Tektronix, Enabling Technology is a trademark of Tektronix, Inc.

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NI PXIe-5185/86: Optimized for Automated Test

Simplified System Integration NI-SCOPE driver for all NI digitizers Share triggers using the matched trigger lines of the PXI backplane Support for all popular application development environments Multimodule synchronization at 80 ps resolution over PXI backplane Reduced Test Times Data throughput rates >700 MB/s Smallest Footprint Fit 10 channels in a single chassis

Minimal Power Consumption 45 W/ch power consumption (90 W per module)

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Reduce Test Times With PXI Express

Block Size 1 MB 16 MB 33 MB NI PXIe-5186/5185 Digitizers 496 MB/s 700 MB/s 738 MB/s LXI Gigabit Ethernet Oscilloscope 12.6 MB/s 19.7 MB/s 20.3 MB/s Test Time Reduction 39.4x 35.5x 36.4x

Why the difference?

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Rack Space
Digital multimeter, battery simulator, signal generator, spectrum analyzer, digitizer, switch, digital I/O, coprocessor, RF transceiver, embedded PC

8U Rack 1,951 Height in3 Power Consumption: 375 W

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3 104 in 4U Rack Height Power Consumption: 790 90 W W

Custom Measurements
NI LabVIEW Toolkits

Jitter Analysis

Signal Processing

Digital Filter Design

Modulation

Spectral Meas.

Processing
Upgrade to the latest processor technology using embedded controllers
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Perform inline processing with NI FlexRIO and LabVIEW FPGA

Take advantage of multicore processors with LabVIEW

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Summary

For high-speed digitizers, ENOB offers the best figure of merit for comparing noise performance Tektronix, Enabling Technology in the NI PXIe-5185/86 delivers superior signal fidelity with low noise and high ENOB NI PXIe-5185/86 modules are optimized for automated test

Tektronix, Enabling Technology is a trademark of Tektronix, Inc.

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For More Information

For NI PXIe-5185/86 product information, visit ni.com/high-speed-digitizer . To learn more about PXI and its benefits for automated test, visit ni.com/automatedtest .

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