Tektronix Introduces the 8 Series Sampling Oscilloscope Platform with Support for 56GBd and 28GBd Applications

Product Focus

Tektronix has recently announced the new 8 Series sampling platform, a disaggregated modular instrument series boasting parallel acquisition, with up to 4 channels per mainframe and the highest measurement accuracy for PAM4 optical signals on multiple inputs simultaneously. The 8 Series consists of the TSO820 Sampling Oscilloscope Mainframe, optical sampling modules, and TSOVu, a new software platform that runs independent of the mainframe on host PC for both live and offline processing of acquired data. Tektronix also introduces the TCR801, an external optical clock recovery module which covers dual band ranges around both 26GBd and 53GBd. These instruments and software provide a platform solution for fast acquisition and analysis.

“Our customers are facing new daily challenges in having to support new emerging technologies,” says Dean Miles, Tektronix Technical Marketing Manager. “Increased demand for bandwidth and network capacity is forcing the industry to adopt to direct detect transceivers with higher baud rates, PAM4 modulation and multiple lanes .These changes have resulted in new customer pain points such as increase in test time, complexity and cost as well challenges with regards to more complex tuning, parallel testing with less margins and higher yield loss. The introduction of the new Tektronix 8 Series helps solve these customer critical problems by delivering a scalable platform that reduces test times, while also providing fast, accurate and repeatable test results,” Miles confirmed.

The 8 Series’ mainframe is a configurable, compact instrument with the smallest modular form factor in the market, at 3U high. Built to maximize the utilization of the rack space, this instrument is ideal for optical manufacturing applications, where users can quickly add new analysis capabilities and reconfigure test systems to support upcoming standards and changes in workflow. Offline and remote modes of operation extend the analysis and visualization capability of the TSO820 beyond the oscilloscope to a user computing environment, facilitating seamless transition from design phase to debug, characterization and manufacturing test. Save time, space, and money with modular design.

Optimize test setups with the 8 Series’ compact form factor and user swappable modules to quickly adapt to changes in workflow and accommodate next generation technologies. The smaller form factor of 8 Series instruments, driven by higher density devices, significantly reduces overall production floor space. The TSO820 Sampling Oscilloscope Mainframe also features up to 8 times faster pattern acquisition as compared to the previous generation, increasing test throughput.
• 3U High, half-rack wide
• Scalable channel count
• Up to 4 optical channels per system

NEW TCR801 OPTICAL CLOCK RECOVERY
The TCR801 Optical Clock Recovery instrument works with new and existing test equipment, including the TSO820 and DSA8300. This single mode, external instrument has a FC/PC optical connection for PAM4 and NRZ and utilizes external optical splitters. The 8 Series Optical Clock Recovery is a fast, flexible and reliable instrument for assisting in the validation of current and future optical designs. With all the applicable standard rates in the 26 and 53 GBd data rate ranges – no options required – the TCR801 Optical Clock Recovery is a crucial component for any bench or rack aimed at verifying the latest high-speed optical standards. Featuring quick lock capabilities and a sensitive front end for low power signals, this instrument simplifies the challenges associated with  today’s optical testing.

The TCR801 Optical Clock Recovery compliance test for industry standards:
25G, 50G, 100G, 200G, 400G IEEE 802.3 standards such as 400GBASEFR8, 400GBASE-DR4, and similar optical direct detect PAM4 standards. It also supports high speed NRZ standards such as 100 Gb Ethernet (100GBASELR4 or similar), which operates at the rate of 25.78125 Gb/s. Standards that use the Golden PLL for the compliance test rely on the TCR801 to recover the clock as per the IEEE 802.3 or similarly required loop bandwidth and roll-off. The communication standards specify the testing carried out using a recovered clock derived from the data signal.

Typically, Phase Lock Loop requirements are defined in terms of –3 dB bandwidth of the recovery loop, the rate of roll-off of the frequency response, and the degree of response peaking allowable.

The TCR801 Optical Clock Recovery instrument has an advanced architecture supporting two ranges of input symbol rates, around >26 GBd and around >53 GBd, with loop bandwidths in the required range for both PAM2/NRZ and PAM4 signals. The recovered clock is in the range of 13+ GHz.

NEW TSOVU SOFTWARE
The 8 Series Sampling Oscilloscope features a brand-new sampling oscilloscope software architecture called TSOVu. This new software runs on a user’s external Windows 10 PC and features an intuitive user interface and analysis engine for increased measurement throughput and limits oscilloscope downtime.

The communication between the PC running TSOVu and the TSO820 mainframe is based on an IEEE 802.3TM Ethernet network, such as 100BASE-T or 1000BASE-T. TSOVu’s Programmatic Interface (PI) commands can be used in the automation environments to control instrument functionality and analysis reporting.

Use TSOVu with the TSO820 Sampling Oscilloscope Mainfarme to acquire multiple channels simultaneously and analyze remotely over Ethernet or Wi-fi. Using the flexible plug-in architecture in TSOVu, measurement plug-ins that can interface with TSOVu will display directly in the Add Measurement window. This includes Tektronix’ standard Pulse Measurement and PAM4 Optical Measurement plug-ins and enables quick development of custom measurement libraries that are fully integrated in TSOVu to be called from the user interface or through PI commands.

The TSOVu software platform enables an external computing environment with a comprehensive programmatic interface boosting automation. This software solution also offers a new measurement plug-in architecture, enabling quick iterations of existing measurements as well as future customer defined measurements.

TSOVu is an advanced software platform that runs independent of the oscilloscope mainframe for both live and post-processing of acquired data. TSOVu offers efficient analysis of optical signals and includes support for eye diagrams as well as complex measurements like TDECQ.
• Programmatic Interface commands
available for automation
• Parallel channel acquisition
• Intuitive and easy to use