Equipment spotlight: Transceiver test bed

What is it?  

(EA) It’s a signal quality analyser, a real-time high-speed oscilloscope used to perform waveform and signal analysis in electronic circuits. 

The equipment delivers the industry’s most accurate capture of high-speed signal behaviour to verify, validate and characterise next generation designs. 

What does it do? 

We use real-life environment simulation and design to analyse signal integrity, debug circuit problems and analyse signal frequency and phase. 

Using this equipment, we can capture and visualise electronic signals in real-time and optimise the performance of customers’ circuits, ensuring they function as intended, speed up validation cycles and accelerate time-to-market. 

The test bed provides ultra-high bandwidth real-time signal acquisition and analysis up to 50 GHz with the lowest noise and highest fidelity, ensuring the most accurate measurements of a signal’s true characteristics. 

Who is it for? 

The equipment can be used by customers in telecommunications and working on technologies such as lasers, optical components and emitters. 

For example, this could be customers developing 5G and Wireless communication systems who require semiconductor testing - testing and debugging of integrated circuits and microprocessors 

Or RADAR and LIDAR systems for optical communications - transceiver characterisation and time domain ultrashort laser pulse characterisation.  

High-speed optical communication systems, especially those operating at tens or hundreds of Gbps, require real-time measurement of signal integrity, jitter, and noise in electrical-to-optical signal conversion.  

High speed oscilloscopes essentially capture high frequency real time data to ensure signal clarity and accuracy, which is critical for proper diagnostics in a number of applications like aerospace and defense and medical imaging. 

Part of our role is to push the limits of technology so that our customers’ products meet industry demand for high-speed data and serial standards. 

It can provide precise signal integrity testing, jitter decomposition, and advanced analysis, as well as distortion measurement, to develop high-performing, high-speed and secure communication systems for industry. 

How is it unique? 

The equipment provides faster high-speed signal analysis, comprehensive Tx and Rx testing support for 100G and 400G standards, plus testing guidance for both NRZ and PAM4 signalling.  

The equipment allows for real-time burst-mode constellation diagram display, eye-diagram display, and advanced jitter and noise analysis for more precise and comprehensive signal analysis that helps us understand how different technology might behave.  

This enhanced capability means we are ready for the next generation of data communications and the coherent signal analysis required. 

These capabilities position CSA Catapult as a leader in high-speed signal testing and analysis. 

To hear more on how our cutting-edge tools and techniques can help you improve your devices, get in touch today.