26 March 2015 – Keysight Technologies launched a new measurement software for characterization of PAM-4 (pulse amplitude modulation with four amplitude levels) signals using the Keysight V-Series, Z-Series, and S-Series real-time oscilloscope platforms. The Keysight N8827A PAM-4 analysis software (for V- and Z-Series oscilloscopes) and N8827B PAM-4 analysis software (for S-Series oscilloscopes) provides comprehensive analysis of electrical PAM-4 signals.
Several industry standards bodies are actively promoting PAM-4 technology to enable the next-generation speed class and push higher data rates for a given channel compared to traditional NRZ signaling. While PAM-4 technology leverages some traditional NRZ measurement algorithms for PAM-4 signals, to fully analyze system performance, unique PAM-4 measurements and parameters are required.
"Our customers face many new design and measurement challenges as they make the switch from NRZ to PAM-4 signaling," said Dave Cipriani, vice president and general manager of Keysight’s Oscilloscope and Protocol Division. "By delivering both analysis and debug capabilities for PAM-4 signals, our latest PAM-4 analysis software for our real-time oscilloscopes helps engineers address these challenges and quickly get their designs to market."
N8827A/B PAM-4 analysis software offers measurements such as:
- Eye width, eye height and eye skew
- Level amplitude, level noise and level skew
- Amplitude level linearity
Engineers can combine the N8827A/B PAM-4 option with existing Infiniium real-time oscilloscope software tools to provide even more powerful analysis capability:
- PAM-4 equalizers (LFE, CTLE) using the N5461A InfiniiSim serial data equalization software
- Embedding/de-embedding of PAM-4 channels using the N5465A InfiniiSim waveform transformation toolset
- Jitter and amplitude analysis on IEEE JP03 patterns using the N8813A EZJIT Complete software tool
Multilevel signaling systems are particularly susceptible to noise, so the V-Series, Z-Series and S-Series real time oscilloscopes offer the industry’s lowest noise floors for wide bandwidth real-time oscilloscopes. When using the 63 GHz Z-Series oscilloscope, for example, designers can achieve accurate analysis of electrical PAM-4 signals to 32 Gbaud. Additionally, engineers can perform offline analysis on stored PAM-4 signals using the N8900A Infiniium Offline oscilloscope analysis software installed on a PC.