LeCroy Corporation's New Line Of Digital Oscilloscopes

Chestnut Ridge, NY - LeCroy Corporation's new line of WaveMaster 8 Zi-A digital oscilloscopes, Serial Data Analyzers, and Disk Drive Analyzers—the 8 Zi-A Series—now provides up to 45 GHz of bandwidth and 120 GS/s of sample rate – the world's highest bandwidth and fastest sample rate real-time oscilloscope – combined with 768 Megapoints of analysis memory. Additionally, the introduction of a model with 20 GHz bandwidth on four channels provides the highest performance and signal fidelity available on four measurement channels. On all models, acquisition capability can be doubled with the use of the Zi-8CH-SYNCH Oscilloscope Synchronization Kit, with all acquired channels displayed on a single display grid.

The 20 GHz bandwidth on each of the four channels makes the WaveMaster 8 Zi-A Series well suited for testing emerging 40/100 GbE DWDM devices and systems. It can be part of an optical DP-QPSK test system for measuring 100+ GbE, and to measure the electrical properties of multi-lane 40/100 GbE transmissions. The WaveMaster 8 Zi-A Series can also be used in 224+ Gb/s (56+ Gbaud) DP-QPSK, 16-QAM optical transmission research.

The standard sample rate is 120 GS/s for 45 GHz bandwidth, 80 GS/s for 25 to 30 GHz bandwidths, and 40 GS/s on all 4 channels at 20 GHz bandwidth. For 4 to 20 GHz bandwidths, the standard sample rate is 40 GS/s on all four channels with an option to increase the sampling rate to 80 GS/s on two channels. All memory is available at full record lengths for analysis processing, 20 Mpts/ch is provided standard, with memory options up to 256 Mpts/ch available. In 120 and 80 GS/s mode, memory can be interleaved to 768 and 512 Mpts/ch.

The WaveMaster 8 Zi-A models utilize second generation silicon germanium (SiGe) components to ensure high performance. SiGe is the most widely adopted and deployed semiconductor fabrication process with many years of commercial deployment. Additionally, it has none of the thermal conductivity, reliability, yield, cost and other concerns that captive in-house processes must contend with. LeCroy's 30 to 45 GHz 8 Zi-A models make use of sixth generation Digital Bandwidth Interleave (DBI) to effectively and reliably extend bandwidth without the deleterious effects of bandwidth "boosting".

LeCroy has designed the 8 Zi-A Series as a single hardware platform, supporting all nine models spanning from 4 to 45 GHz of bandwidth. This means engineers can leverage their investment and stay current with emerging high-speed technologies and serial data standards by purchasing only the bandwidth needed for current designs, and upgrading to additional bandwidth as needs change. Customers who had previously purchased an 8 Zi model can upgrade to 8 Zi-A performance and bandwidth.

Highest Performance 4-Channel Oscilloscope
The WaveMaster 820Zi-A model provides four channels at 20 GHz with exceptional performance and signal fidelity. The second generation SiGe chipset used in the 8 Zi-A provides ample bandwidth out to 20 GHz without the need for the bandwidth "boosting" that is utilized on competitive products that are rated in hardware to 16 GHz and utilize digital signal processing (DSP) to excessively "boost" bandwidth. This type of bandwidth boost used by competitors carries significant signal fidelity penalties such as increased noise, increased jitter noise floor, excessive overshoot, and effective number of bits (ENOB) dropouts in the mid-bandwidth range. Conversely, the 820Zi-A model suffers from none of these phenomena and exhibits exceptional rise time, overshoot, noise, and jitter noise floor performance, including class leading total jitter noise floor of <190 fs rms.

World's Highest Bandwidth Real-Time Oscilloscope
With the launch of the WaveMaster 845Zi-A model, LeCroy again assumes bandwidth leadership in real-time oscilloscopes. The 845Zi-A uses proven, second generation SiGe track and hold and analog-to-digital (ADC) components to achieve exceptional performance. This unprecedented oscilloscope bandwidth is ideal for leading-edge research and development applications, especially in the optical market for high-speed next generation long-haul optical network development. In addition to the 45 GHz capability, the oscilloscope may also be operated in a 30 GHz / 2 channel or a 20 GHz / 4 channel mode. This gives flexibility to utilize multiple channels at 30 GHz or 20 GHz for timing validation while retaining the ability to utilize fewer channels for higher bandwidth signal fidelity measurements. The 20 GHz four channel rating of the 845Zi-A (and likewise, the 830Zi-A) has 25% more bandwidth compared to competitive offerings that reach to 30 GHz and only provide a four channel bandwidth of 16 GHz. Jitter Noise Floor at 45 GHz is an astounding 125 fs rms.

Maximum sample rate in single channel mode is 120 GS/s (45 GHz), with 80 GS/s and 40 GS/s operation in 2 channel (30 GHz) and 4 channel (20 GHz) modes respectively. Likewise, maximum analysis memory available is 768, 512, or 256 Megapoints/channel in 45, 30, and 20 GHz modes, respectively.

SOURCE: LeCroy Corporation