LeCroy's silicon bandwidth advantage is
due to years of accumulated experience with widely adopted, mainstream,
commercial SiGe processes. LeCroy uses 8HP SiGe, the most recently available
process, to obtain 36 GHz on four channels. LeCroy's 65 GHz model and 100 GHz
plans are implemented with LeCroy's patented and proven technology path, DBI.
Furthermore, LeCroy's proprietary ChannelSync™ architecture in the LabMaster 10
Zi oscilloscopes permits precise synchronization of up to eighty silicon-based
36 GHz / 80 GS/s channels and up to forty 65 GHz / 160 GS/s DBI channels -
capability not offered by any other manufacturer - with a future 100 GHz
upgrade path.
Modular Oscilloscope Platform Enhances
Usage
The LabMaster modular oscilloscope
architecture separates the oscilloscope signal acquisition function from the
display, control, and processing functions. The LabMaster Master Control Module
(MCM-Zi) contains the display, controls, ChannelSync architecture, and a
powerful server-class CPU. LabMaster 10 Zi Acquisition Modules, provide
silicon-based 36 GHz performance with up to 65 GHz on two channels (and future
upgrade to 100 GHz on one channel). One LabMaster 10 Zi Master Control Module
and one LabMaster 10 Zi Acquisition Module function as a single, conventional
four channel 36 GHz oscilloscope, or as a conventional two-channel 65 GHz and
four-channel 36 GHz oscilloscope. However, by using ChannelSync architecture,
up to twenty LabMaster 10 Zi Acquisition Modules can be perfectly synchronized,
thus extending the already unique channel density performance by a factor of
twenty to achieve up to eighty channels at 36 GHz and forty channels at 65 GHz.
A newly announced expansion module for LabMaster oscilloscopes provides the
capability to quadruple the total number of acquisition modules and channels
compared to before.
The LabMaster ChannelSync architecture
advantages are numerous. There is a single sample clock and trigger circuit utilized
by all acquisition modules to provide the highest acquisition precision
possible for up to eighty channels. The modular design is
"plug-and-play", so no programming, external clocking, clock
synchronization, or complex connections between oscilloscopes are required.
There is a single display and a single server-class (12-core) central
processing unit (CPU) in the MCM-Zi Master Control Module. All acquired
channels and processed waveforms from all acquisition modules are displayed in
one location for ease of use and understanding of information - just like in a
single, conventional oscilloscope. The entire connection and setup of multiple
oscilloscope acquisition modules, including fine deskew calibration, takes
approximately five to ten minutes. Nothing could be simpler.
28 Gb/s True-Hardware Serial Trigger
Adds to LabMaster 10 Zi Superiority
LeCroy is announcing a 28 Gb/s - the
world's highest speed - serial pattern trigger with support for up to 80-bit
non-return to zero (NRZ) serial patterns, 8b/10b and 64b/66b symbols, and PCI
Express Generation 3.0 protocol. This is in addition to the previously
announced 14.1 Gb/s serial trigger with identical NRZ, symbol and protocol
support. Both of these are true-hardware FPGA-based triggers that provide real-time
monitoring of the acquisition stream and capture specific serial data traffic
as defined by the user. This trigger significantly enhances the value of
LabMaster 10 Zi for high speed serial data debugging by providing the ability
to isolate errors to specific bit patterns or symbols and is more sophisticated
and useful compared to a "software-trigger" that is provided by other
manufacturers.
Multi-Lane Serial Data Analysis and
Crosstalk/Noise Analysis
At DesignCon 2012 in Santa Clara,
California, LeCroy previewed the ability to display eye diagrams, histograms,
bathtub curves, jitter measurements, etc. on four lanes simultaneously with
reference/compare capability. Additionally, the crosstalk/analysis application
package was previewed. These capabilities have been beta-tested and will be
available to customers in July of 2012. These capabilities are ideally suited
to customers who are testing four lanes of electrical serial data, such as 40
GbE (4 x 10 Gb/s) or 100 GbE (4 x 25 or 28 Gb/s) and who need the ability to
visually assess multiple lanes simultaneously for crosstalk infringement,
measure amplitude noise at specific sampling points in the unit interval, and
then perform subsequent analysis on crosstalk root cause. A LeCroy LabMaster 10
Zi system with four channels at 65 GHz (two acquisition modules) will provide
the ability to view two lanes simultaneously using cabled inputs and capture
serial data signals with power spectral density to nearly the fifth harmonic,
or use eight channels at 36 GHz to capture all four lanes for detailed
crosstalk analysis.
Optical Transmission Using Coherent
MIMO
While DP-QPSK and 16-QAM modulation
formats have garnered most of the research investments for optical transmission
in the past few years, parallel optical systems, such as frequency-parallel
coherent optical super-channels or spatially-parallel coherent optical
multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems have been gaining attention due
to their ability to scale fiber capacities and to obtain higher transmission
rates with lower speed components. In recent MIMO experiments done at Bell Labs
a LabMaster 9 Zi-A modular oscilloscope with twelve channels was utilized to
demonstrate a mode-multiplexed 6 x 20-GBaud QPSK transmission (240-Gb/s per
wavelength channel) up to 4200 km and the results were honored with
post-deadline paper acceptance at OFC/NFOEC in Los Angeles, California in March
2012.
Towards Terabit/second Interface Rates
in Optics
Other researchers at Bell Labs have
also used LabMaster oscilloscopes for record-breaking QPSK and 16-QAM research
at data rates approaching 1 Tb/s, most recently a 640-Gb/s single-channel line
rate using 80-GBaud PDM-16QAM.
"LabMaster oscilloscopes have played a key role in our research at Bell Labs. In our coherent MIMO experiments, the modular oscilloscope system synchronizes all twelve high-speed channels for us, which significantly facilitates our experiments," commented Dr. Peter Winzer from Bell Labs. "We appreciate the support that LeCroy has provided to us in our efforts to approach Terabit/second single-carrier interface rates, based on their family of high-bandwidth oscilloscope systems."
LabMaster 10 Zi Pricing and Delivery
LabMaster 10 Zi is LeCroy's most
ambitious product line yet, consisting of core four-channel 36 GHz modules with
bandwidth up to 65 GHz available. The 65 GHz LabMaster 10 Zi acquisition module
is priced at $355,000, and a complete two channel at 65 GHz and four channel at
36 GHz LabMaster oscilloscope is priced at $451,900. LeCroy expects to begin customer
shipments of LabMaster 10 Zi products in the summer.
About LeCroy
LeCroy Corporation is a worldwide
leader in serial data test solutions, creating advanced instruments that drive
product innovation by quickly measuring, analyzing, and verifying complex
electronic signals. The Company offers high-performance oscilloscopes, protocol
analyzers, and global communications protocol test solutions used by design
engineers in the computer, semiconductor and consumer electronics, data
storage, automotive and industrial, military and aerospace, and
telecommunication markets. LeCroy's 48-year heritage of technical innovation is
the foundation for its recognized leadership in "WaveShape
Analysis"—capturing, viewing, and measuring the high-speed signals that
drive today's information and communications technologies. LeCroy is headquartered
in Chestnut Ridge, New York. Company information is available at http://www.lecroy.com.