Solutions for Complex Modulation Tests up to 63 GHz

20 September 2012 – Agilent Technologies announced the industry’s first real-time optical modulation analyzer with a bandwidth of 63 GHz. The new instrument allows researchers to characterize the latest coherent receivers and ultrafast transmitters with a sample rate of 160 GSa/s at 63 GHz electrical bandwidth.

The system is capable of real-time sampling on four channels, each with 33 GHz bandwidth, in a single oscilloscope.

The N4391A real-time optical modulation analyzer offers comprehensive tools to analyze and quantify the integrity of a vector-modulated signal for error-vector magnitude, quadrature error and other impairments. The N4391A offers measurement and compensation of the link’s in-channel chromatic dispersion and first-order polarization mode dispersion by analyzing the received signals, granting engineers deep insight into the root cause of constellation distortions beyond 32 Gbaud.

For the greatest flexibility, users can process the raw digitized data coming from the N4391A’s optical coherent receiver using the Microsoft .NET framework and include the results as a user-provided library. For flexible data analysis, customers can include their algorithms in the burst-mode processing system of the N4391A. The N4391A can handle any number of algorithms in a user-selectable sequence.

 “At Agilent we are committed to helping our customers speed up the development of next-generation coherent components and subsystems,” said Joachim Peerlings, marketing manager of Agilent’s Digital Photonic Test business. “Whether they use the latest generation of the N4391A optical modulation analyzer in research, or they use the portable, compact N4392A real-time modulation analyzer in manufacturing and system integration, our customers can rely on consistent measurements throughout the entire design cycle of their products.”

The N4391A optical modulation analyzer is available today in various configurations up to 33-GHz bandwidth, based on a single Infiniium real-time oscilloscope. Configurations up to 63-GHz bandwidth are scheduled for shipment at the end of 2012.