Keysight Technologies Inc of Santa Rosa, CA, USA (which provides electronic measurement instruments, systems and related software used in the design, development, manufacture, installation, deployment and operation of electronic equipment) has announced the turn-on of chip-sets based on its indium phosphide (InP) technology that will enable it to deliver (in 2017) real-time and equivalent-time oscilloscopes offering record bandwidths of greater than 100GHz with significantly better noise floors than what is currently on the market.
The real-time oscilloscopes will also include a new 10-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that allows higher vertical resolution of signals captured at ultra-high bandwidth, and more than one maximum bandwidth input channel per oscilloscope to enable tight channel synchronization. Keysight attributes the results to its expertise in microwave semiconductor design and packaging, oscilloscope architecture and in-house fabrication technology.
"Our expertise in microwave semiconductor technology has allowed us to deliver the next-generation indium phosphide process to create a breakthrough in real-time and equivalent-time oscilloscope performance, and it will enable significant advancements in other Keysight products over time as well," says senior VP & chief technology officer Jay Alexander.
Engineers working with next-generation, high-speed interfaces such as the upcoming IEEE P802.3bs 400G, as well as terabit coherent optical modulation, will need oscilloscopes for electrical parametric measurements, notes Keysight. These technologies and others will play a key role in validating fifth-generation wireless (5G) designs. Also, these interfaces will drive the need for high-performance, real-time and equivalent-time signal analysis capabilities to 100GHz and beyond, add the firm. As data rates continue to extend beyond 56Gb/s NRZ and 56GBaud multi-level signaling, engineers will need not only higher bandwidth but also higher vertical resolution and lower noise floors to address their validation challenges, and the new chip-sets have been designed with this in mind.
Six years ago, Keysight released its first oscilloscope with chip-sets fabricated using the firm's proprietary InP process, and it is still the only company that produces oscilloscopes made with InP chip-sets. Investing in the next-generation InP process has allowed Keysight to scale the transistor switching frequencies beyond the 300GHz level, enabling higher bandwidths in both the chips and the end products.
"Keysight is investing in a completely new technology chain to meet the next-generation measurement needs," says Dave Cipriani, VP & general manager of Keysight's oscilloscope business. "Our goal is to move multiple performance parameters ahead simultaneously. The next-generation oscilloscopes deliver bandwidths starting at 80GHz and going beyond 100GHz. They will have a lower noise density, providing higher-resolution measurements in tightly synchronized, multi-channel systems," he adds. "Whether customers are measuring higher baud rates, higher-order QAM signals or multi-channel systems, these next-generation scopes will meet their needs."
