20 GHz TDR/TDT USB Sampling Oscilloscopes

10 October 2013 – The new PicoScope 9300 Series TDR/TDT Sampling Oscilloscopes can perform time-domain reflectometry and transmission mismatch and network analysis on high-frequency cables, PCBs, backplanes and interconnections. Their built-in differential fast edge generators have a rise time of 65 ps at up to 6 V (PicoScope 9311) or 40 ps at over 250 mV (PicoScope 9312 via plug-in pulse heads), providing a typical distance-to-fault resolution down to 10 mm.

“The PicoScope 9300 Series are the only compact, full-featured PC-based sampling oscilloscopes on the market,” explained Alan Tong, Managing Director of market leaders Pico Technology. “Their specifications and features are a match for traditional full-sized bench top instruments but at a fraction of the cost.” The TDR/TDT models are full-featured sampling oscilloscopes, so can be used for pre-compliance tests, fault-finding and margin testing on serial data signals such as 10 Gb Ethernet, SONET/SDH STM64 and FEC1071, 10x Fibre Channel, InfiniBand and PCI Express.  The scopes also have LAN and USB interfaces, and advanced large-screen display features such as colour and density profiling, multiple trace windows, histograms, multiple measurements and statistics. With an industry-leading sampling rate of 1 MS/s, they can build waveforms and persistence displays faster than other sampling oscilloscopes.

The small footprint of the PicoScope 9300 scopes allows them to be positioned right next to the device or port under test, on the bench or in the field, without recourse to expensive pull-out sampling modules or lossy extension cables.  Specification highlights include: 17.5 ps input rise time, dual 16-bit, 60 dB dynamic range ADCs, 5 ps/div dual timebase, 14 GHz trigger bandwidth, built-in clock recovery up to 11.3 Gb/s, and time interval resolution of 64 fs. Typical input noise is 1.5 mV RMS at full bandwidth, with trigger jitter of 1.8 ps RMS and recovered clock jitter of only 1 ps RMS.

The PicoSample software has been comprehensively updated for the new oscilloscopes. The range of controls has been extended, with intuitive graphics, click-and-drag operations and measurement labels to simplify and speed up operation. The flexible layout displays only the controls and menus you need, leaving the maximum possible space for your data. There is an unrivalled suite of measurement and analysis functions: 61 math operations, 138 automatic measurements and 167 standard comms masks from 1.54 Mb/s to 12.5 Gb/s. PicoSample 3 is compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows® from Windows XP to Windows 8.

The PicoScope 9300 Series TDR/TDT Sampling Oscilloscopes are available now from Pico distributors worldwide and from www.picotech.com. Prices are $18,995 / £11,512 / €13,930 for the PicoScope 9311 and $22,395 / £13,573 / €16,423 for the PicoScope 9312. All hardware, accessories and software features listed above are included in the price, with no hidden extras. A demonstration copy of the software can be downloaded from the company website.

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