Pico Technology has launched the PicoScope®9300 Series Sampling Oscilloscopes that can perform pre-compliance tests, fault-finding, design, debug and margin testing on serial communications signals such as 10 Gb Ethernet, SONET/SDH STM64 and FEC1071, 10x Fibre Channel, and InfiniBand and PCI Express.
Claimed to be the only compact, full-featured PC-based sequential sampling oscilloscopes on the market, they offer a unique combination of portability, price and performance. Their small size enables them to be positioned right next to the device under test, minimizing cable losses and removing the need for expensive active probes or pull-out sampling modules.
The Series features a built-in signal generator with 4 ns minimum bit interval in PRBS mode and 8 ns minimum period in pulse mode. The devices have LAN and USB interfaces, and advanced display features such as colour and density profiling, multiple trace windows, histograms and statistics.
Specification highlights include: over 15 TS/s effective sampling rate, 17.5 ps input rise time, dual 16-bit, 60 dB dynamic range inputs, 5 ps/div dual timebase, 14 GHz prescaled trigger bandwidth, clock recovery up to 11.3 Gb/s and time interval resolution of 64 fs. The sampling rate of 1 MHz is said to build waveforms and persistence displays faster than any other sampling scope. Signal quality is good too; with typical noise of 1.5 mV RMS at full bandwidth, external trigger jitter of 1.8 ps RMS, and recovered clock jitter of only 1 ps RMS.
The PicoSample™ software has been comprehensively updated for the new oscilloscopes. The range of controls has been revised and extended, with intuitive graphics, click-and-drag operations and measurement labels to simplify and speed up operation. A flexible layout allows users to devote as much of the screen as possible to their signal while displaying the controls and menus that they need.
The software includes a comprehensive suite of measurement and analysis functions: 61 math functions, 138 automatic measurements and 167 standard comms masks from 1.54 Mb/s to 12.5 Gb/s. The software is compatible with all versions of Microsoft Windows®from Windows XP to Windows 8 (32-bit and 64-bit versions).