Tek gets on the high-speed bus: Captures digital and analog signals with a single probe - News - Product Announcement

Electronic News, April 1, 2002 by Jeff Chappell

Analog, digital--it's all the same to Tektronix Inc. and its new probe, which can acquire both types of signals simultaneously.

Tektronix today unveiled its unique probe technology along with its TLA7Axx series of logic analyzers, which feature timing acquisition rates up to 8GHz.

The probes developed for the new logic analyzer modules can acquire both timing and state measurements of digital and analog signals, according to the company. Wilsonville, Ore.-based Tektronix also said that, with a capacitance of 0.7 picofarads, it has the lowest capacitance in the industry.

"We developed new technology based on silicon germanium; the front end of the probe is an access probe," explained Marc Clement, marketing manager for Tek's logic analyzer products.

The probe, which can acquire high-bandwidth analog signals at the same time as digital signals, sends the analog signal to an analog multiplexer and from there the analog and digital data is sent in parallel to the logic analyzer system, Clement said.

Users can view the analog signal in real-time on an external oscilloscope attached to the logic analyzer via TektronixiView software, which supports multiple displays. iView can overlay an integrated display as well and allow different instruments connected to it to trigger each other, according to Tektronix.

Billed as connectorless probes, the TLA7xx probes attach directly to a circuit board with a nut block or press-in nuts, as opposed to an adapter such as a Mictor adapter. Signals are transferred in the compression connection via wires embedded in elastomer on the probe head that contact pads on the board under test directly.

The TLA7Axx series probes include the p6810 general-purpose, P6860 high-density single-ended and a P6880 high-density differential probe. They include legacy support for typical adapters, Tektronix said.

"At the end of the day, the hardware is useless without the probing technology," Clement said.

As for the new hardware, the TLA7Axx logic analyzer series comprises six different modules. All modules feature 8GHz, 125-picosend timing simultaneous with state acquisitions from l20MHz to an 800MHz clock rate and data rates up to 1.25Gbits/sec. The six modules also feature up to 2GHz deep timing and are available in 34-, 68-, 102- and 136-channel configurations. Users can merge modules for configurations up to 680 channels.

With this probe technology and hardware, Tektronix has its eyes on the market for high-speed buses used in computer and communications applications.

"Things are going significantly faster," Clement said. "Just looking at the ones and zeroes no longer works. Engineers need to see the characteristics of the signal," he added.

The TLA7Axx logic analyzer modules range from $8,000 to $63,000, depending on the channel and memory depth configuration, and are available now, according to Tek, as are the P6810 and P6860 probes, which cost $4,000 and $2,000, respectively. The P6880 high-density differential probe, priced at $4,000, will begin shipping in the third quarter.