Keysight Technologies, Inc. introduced DDR4 ball-grid array (BGA) probe interposer solutions for Infiniium Series oscilloscopes. Engineers can use the probes and oscilloscopes for debugging and characterizing DDR4 memory designs and testing device compliance with the JEDEC DDR4 standard.

With the introduction of DDR4 memory technology, dynamic random access memory (DRAM) data rates can now reach 3.2 gigatransfers per second. These high data rates make probing memory signals challenging for engineers working on high-speed memory system designs. Keysight’s new DDR4 BGA interposer provides direct access to the balls of the DRAM with low loading and minimal impact on signal integrity allowing engineers to accurately measure DDR4 signals.

The Keysight DDR4 BGA interposers provide signal access points to clock, strobe, data, address and command signals of the DDR4 DRAM for true compliance testing with an oscilloscope.

“High-speed memory designers need to access signals at the ball of the DRAM reliably to perform accurate measurements,” said Dave Cipriani, vice president and general manager of Keysight’s Oscilloscope and Protocol Division. “The new DDR4 BGA interposers, used with the InfiniiSim waveform transformation toolset, provide the most accurate signal representation of the device to enable quick and easy design validation.”

“In accordance with the JEDEC standard, we successfully completed compliance test of our DDR4 memory solution for UltraScale devices running at 2400 Mb/s – an industry first – on Keysight’s new DDR4 x16 interposer,” said Tamara Schmitz, director of power and memory in Technical Marketing at Xilinx.

The DDR4 BGA interposers support different packages. The N2114A x4/x8 BGA interposer provides support for x4 and x8 DRAM packages. The N2115A x16 BGA interposer provides support for x16 DRAM packages. Both models allow connection to the oscilloscopes with high-bandwidth solder-in InfiniiMax II/III probes.

Additional information about Keysight’s BGA interposer probes is available at www.keysight.com/find/n2114a and www.keysight.com/find/n2115a. Product images are available at www.keysight.com/find/ddr4bga-scope_images.

Keysight’s complete oscilloscope portfolio includes instruments with a variety of form factors with bandwidths from 20 MHz to 90 GHz.

U.S. Pricing and Availability

The N2114A DDR4 X4/X8 oscilloscope-optimized BGA interposer is priced at $1,250. The N2115A DDR4 X16 oscilloscope-optimized BGA interposer is priced at $1,450. Both interposers will begin shipping Sept. 23.