VectorStar and ShockLine series provide enhanced performance to engineers
High-speed data rates and highly extended circuit troubleshooting

Anritsu announced that it is continuously developing products that meet the test requirements of signal integrity (SI) engineers by adding options for VectorStar and ShockLine Vector Network Analyzers (VNAs).

The VectorStar Eye Diagram and ShockLine ATD (Advanced Time Domain) options further expand the SI capabilities of Anritsu products, providing SI engineers with enhanced tools to perform channel diagnosis and model verification for high-speed digital circuit designs.

“As data rates continue to increase, the process of characterizing signal channels is becoming increasingly challenging. In other words, since signal integrity measurement has become a more critical element for VNAs, expanding the capabilities for processing and analyzing data is highly beneficial. For this reason, more tools are being added to the VectorStar and Shockline VNA families to support signal integrity engineers in analyzing their designs more efficiently,” said Dr. Jon Martens, a senior researcher at Anritsu.


The VectorStar and ShockLine VNA product families provide complementary performance to enable SI engineers to meet the measurement requirements needed in a wide range of applications. VectorStar is Anritsu's highest-performing VNA product line and is used by SI engineers to address the most demanding design requirements.

For example, some designers hope their test systems can include system clocks up to the 5th harmonic. VectorStar offers 2-port/4-port broadband configurations ranging from 70 kHz to 70 GHz, 110 GHz, and 145 GHz over a single coaxial connection, and supports the latest digital data rates, including 25/28 Gbps and 43 Gbps. Anritsu's ShockLine VNA product family also provides excellent performance, but offers suitable performance for less demanding SI applications at a lower price point. Due to these characteristics, ShockLine VNA products are better suited for systems with lower data transfer rates or for manufacturing applications.

VectorStar Eye Diagram

VectorStar is highly suitable for SI engineers designing high-speed data transmission requirements essential to support new network systems such as 5G and IoT. Unlike existing file-based techniques, the new Eye Diagram option updates the VectorStar display through a trace-based process, eliminating the need to manually transfer SnP files. Unlike other VNA products, there is no need to save S-parameter performance data to a file; simply load the file containing the observed eye diagram. This feature dramatically improves measurement efficiency, analysis, and data transmission signal path tuning, allowing users to view the results of circuit changes in near real-time.

Through an innovative approach, engineers can tune for improved performance while observing the potential for bit errors caused by effects such as level compression, jitter, slew, and edge distortion. This method is particularly valuable for identifying data stream SI issues that occur within a given transmission path or can help in accurately analyzing the location of subsystem errors.

A new option combining VectorStar's industry-leading key capabilities provides SI engineers with the ability to monitor the transmission quality of digitally modulated signals. VectorStar offers continuous sweeping capabilities while providing the unique ability to display all key elements, such as eye diagrams, time domain/TDR, and S-parameters, on the same channel.

ATD (Advanced Time Domain) for ShockLine VNA

The ATD option designed for the MS46522B/MS46524B feature series not only provides tools for SI engineers to design circuit models and perform verification measurements, but also offers troubleshooting capabilities for SI issues. The ATD option partially includes entry-level SI features, including the ability to construct eye diagrams and apply various equation techniques while determining single-ended or differential NEXT (near-end crosstalk) and FEXT (far-end crosstalk).

When using the ATD option, engineers can compare total power of combined noise, insertion loss crosstalk (ICR) ratio, insertion loss, insertion loss deviation (ILD), and integrated crosstalk noise (ICN) across various standards, including IEEE and OIF. It also features Plot TDR, TDT, and Skew utilities that allow S-parameter data to be converted into impedance profiles, time domain reflection (TDR) with open-end functionality, or time domain transmission (TDR/TDT) with matched termination functionality.

With the launch of the VectorStar Eye Diagram and ShockLine ATD options, engineers now have a more complete set to meet SI design and channel modeling requirements. Whether applications require the full functional performance of the VectorStar VNA at peak performance or peak performance at a low cost through the ShockLine product family, Anritsu provides comprehensive solutions for current or future SI challenges.