Teledyne LeCroy Announces Wavepulsar 40iX, a High-Speed Interconnect Analyzer Providing VNA and TDR Functions in a Single Instrument… Simultaneously Delivering Time and Frequency Domain Details with a Single Signal Capture

On the 5th, Teledyne LeCroy unveiled WavePulser 40iX, a high-speed interconnect analyzer and solution for interconnect testing and verification.

Wavepulser 40iX is suitable for high-speed hardware designers and test engineers to characterize and analyze interconnects and cables in high-speed serial protocol fields such as PCI Express, HDMI, USB, SAS, SATA, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand, Gigabit Ethernet, and Automotive Ethernet.

Interconnect testing and validation have so far been divided into two types: time domain testing and frequency domain testing.

In the former case, a signal integrity engineer characterized the step/impulse response by generating an impedance profile using TDR.

TDR is characterized by high spatial resolution, which indicates how finely the length can be subdivided, and locates the damage position of the transmission line based on changes in the impedance profile. It can be specified accurately.

In the latter case, VNAs featuring a high dynamic range are commonly used by microwave engineers to measure the S-parameters of RF components.

To apply VNA to high-speed interconnect testing, DC values must be estimated, and separate analysis tools must be used to perform time-domain simulation, emulation, time gating, and jitter analysis.

Test equipment that cannot provide simultaneous time domain and frequency domain testing cannot fully meet the requirements of design engineers testing and verifying high-speed interconnects.

Wavepulser 40iX simplifies high-speed interconnect test and verification steps by integrating time and frequency domain characterization.

The new product performs interconnect system characterization by providing S-parameter frequency domain analysis from a Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) and impedance profiles from a TDR with a single signal capture on a single device, and also offers in-depth analysis capabilities.

Wavepulser 40ix resolves the complexity of physical signal paths by characterizing serial data cables, channels, connectors, vias, backplanes, printed circuit boards, chips, and SoC packages.
<bThe measured S-parameters may also be used for further analysis, including time gating, de-embedding of interconnects, eye diagrams, optimized equalization settings, serial data pattern simulation, and advanced jitter analysis along with component failure.

Eric Bogtin, Director of Signal Integrity at Teledyne LeCroy, said, “The Wavepulser 40iX provides frequency domain and time domain results simultaneously in a single instrument, enabling the detection of fault locations such as incorrectly assembled connectors, physically damaged cables, or discontinuities in the channel.”

He further explained, “Since discontinuity points appear scattered throughout the frequency response of the DUT, they cannot be detected using only S-parameters that show only the frequency domain response, but the Wavepulsar 40iX can easily identify and locate such positions with a length resolution of less than 1 mm.”

It also stated, “It provides single-ended and mixed-mode S-parameter measurements (simulation possible) from DC to 40 GHz, and without the Wavepulsar 40iX, if you want to measure S-parameters, de-embedding fixtures, display time or frequency domains in single-ended or mixed mode, and simulate eye diagrams, four different software tools may be required.”