Aglient Analyzes JitterAglient Analyzes Jitter

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today introduced the industry’s first jitter subcomponent analysis capability that can accurately separate random and deterministic jitter, and their subcomponents, from 50 MB/s to 40 GB/s.

The Agilent 86100C Infiniium digital communications analyzer with jitter (DCA-J) adds detailed one-button jitter subcomponent analysis to the industry’s leading wide-bandwidth sampling oscilloscope to enable faster, more accurate verification of the latest digital designs and components.

The need to move ever-increasing amounts of data between chips and across computer buses is forcing change in both hardware architectures and software protocols. As standard data rates move from megahertz to gigahertz speeds, signal interference dictates a switch from parallel to serial architectures. Bus speeds are increasing by a factor of 10 or more, and at gigabit data rates, test engineers find that jitter is their single biggest problem.

The new DCA-J is a complete measurement solution that offers unprecedented analysis accuracy with easy, one-button measurement at a breakthrough price. Design and test engineers working on standards such as CEI, XFP, Fiber Channel, Gigabit Ethernet and PCI Express can use the DCA-J to quickly measure jitter subcomponents such as random jitter, deterministic jitter, data dependent jitter, pattern jitter, inter-symbol interference and duty cycle jitter. These measurements are critical to finding and eliminating signal integrity issues that delay getting new products to market.

“The new jitter analysis capability of the DCA-J provides irreplaceable visibility for the challenges of jitter characterization of our world-class products,” said Anthony Sanders, principal engineer at Infineon Technologies. “In order to manage jitter effectively, we need tools that can decompose the jitter into the numerical and statistical forms that allow us to predict our performance effectively and provide the insight necessary to solve problems quickly.”

The DCA-J combines patent-pending measurement algorithms with the lowest intrinsic jitter of any jitter analysis solution available today within a single instrument. In addition, measurement speed and accuracy is greatly improved by using an efficient combination of triggering and data processing, making it ideal for R&D, component verification and production testing.

“The speed of the DCA-J is impressive,” said Steve Hubbins, silicon evaluation specialist at Texas Instruments. “Data dependent jitter measurements that used to take hours have been reduced to less than a minute.”

The DCA-J builds on an industry-leading platform that already offers the most precise waveform shapes, the widest bandwidth for both optical and electrical waveform measurements and the most accurate time domain reflectometry results. The DCA-J’s modular architecture is backward-compatible with all plug-in modules from the 86100A/B, 83480A and 54750A.

“The DCA-J is a major leap forward in equivalent time sampling scope technology, setting a new standard for jitter measurements,” said Sigi Gross, vice president and general manager of Agilent’s Digital Verification Solutions Division. “In addition, the DCA-J is a powerful four-in-one solution for solving difficult measurement problems at an affordable price.”

Agilent Technologies Inc.