Agilent 86100A Technical Specifications

Agilent 86100A
Wide-Bandwidth
Oscilloscope

Technical Specifications

• Modular platform for testing waveforms up to 40 Gb/s

• Easier to use through a simplified user interface

• Faster measurement throughput

• Improved measurement accuracy and repeatability

• Compatible with Agilent 83480A-series and
54750-series modules

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Three Instruments in One

For basic oscilloscope operation there is easy front
panel access with that familiar analog-look and feel.
A Windows®-based system let’s you easily navigate
through the user-interface. The 86100A Infiniium DCA
can be viewed as three high-performance instruments
in one. It’s a general-purpose repetitive sampling oscil­loscope. It’s a digital communications analyzer. It’s a
time domain reflectometer. Just select the instrument
mode and start making measurements.

Digital Communications Analysis

Accurate eye-diagram analysis is essential for charac­terizing the quality of transmitters used from 100 Mb/s
to 40 Gb/s. The 86100A was designed specifically for
the complex task of analyzing digital communications
waveforms. Compliance mask and parametric testing
no longer require a complicated sequence of setups
and configurations. If you can press a button, you can
perform a complete compliance test. The important
measurements you need are right at your fingertips,
including:

• industry standard mask testing with built-in margin
analysis,

• extinction ratio measurements with improved accu­racy and repeatability, and

• eye measurements: crossing %, eye height and width,
‘1’ and ‘0’ levels, jitter, rise or fall times and more.

The key to accurate measurements of lightwave
communications waveforms is the optical receiver. The
86100A has a broad range of precision receivers inte­grated within the instrument.

• Built-in photodiodes, with flat frequency responses,
yield the highest waveform fidelity. This provides
high accuracy for extinction ratio measurements.

• Standards-based transmitter compliance measure­ments require filtered responses. The 86100A has a
broad range of filter combinations. Filters can be
automatically and repeatably switched in or out of
the measurement channel remotely over GPIB or
with a front panel button. The frequency response
of the entire measurement path is calibrated, and
will maintain its performance over long-term usage.

• The integrated optical receiver provides a calibrated
optical channel. With the accurate optical power
meter built into the module, optical signals are accu­rately measured and displayed in optical power
units. Switches or couplers are not required for an
average power measurement. Signal routing is
simplified and signal strength is maintained.

Eye Diagram Mask Testing

The 86100A provides efficient, high-throughput wave­form compliance testing with a suite of standards
based eye-diagram masks. The test process has been
streamlined into a minimum number of keystrokes for
testing at industry standard data rates.

Standard Masks

• 1X Gigabit Ethernet

• 2X Gigabit Ethernet

• 10X Gigabit Ethernet

• Fibre Channel 0133

• Fibre Channel 0266

• Fibre Channel 1063

• Fibre Channel 2125

• STM0/OC1

• STM1/OC3

• STM4/OC12

• STM16/OC48

• STM64/OC192

• STS1 EYE

• STS3 EYE

Other eye-diagram masks are easily created through
scaling those listed above. In addition, mask editing
allows for new masks either by editing existing masks,
or creating new masks from scratch. The mask data
can be entered or modified on an external PC using a
text editor such as Notepad, then can be transferred to
the instrument’s hard drive using LAN or the A: drive.
Once in the instrument, the mask can be used for
mask test.

Perform these mask conformance tests with conve­nient user-definable measurement conditions, such as
mask margins for guardband testing, number of wave­forms tested, and stop/limit actions.

Measurement Speed

Measurement speed has been increased with both fast
hardware and a user-friendly instrument. In the lab,
don’t waste time trying to figure out how to make a

The integrated optical channel can be used as a fully
calibrated SONET/SDH/Gigabit Ethernet or Fibre Channel
reference receiver or as a wide-bandwidth receiver.

Agilent 86105A Optical Receiver Section

Optical

Receiver

Average

Power

Monitor

▲

SDH/Sonet

Filter

▲

Sampling/

Amplification

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measurement. With the simple-to-use 86100A, you
don’t have to relearn how to make a measurement
each time you use it. In manufacturing, it is a battle to
continually reduce the cost per test. Solution: Fast
PC-based processors, resulting in high measurement
throughput and reduced test time.

Measure

Standard Measurements/Features

The following measurements are available from the
tool bar, as well as the pull down menus. Measure­ments available are dependent on the DCA operating
mode.

Oscilloscope Mode

Time

Rise Time, Fall Time, Jitter RMS, Jitter p-p, Period,
Frequency, + Pulse Width, - Pulse Width, Duty
Cycle, Delta T

ime

, [T

max

, T

min

, T

edge

—remote

commands only]

Amplitude

Overshoot, Average Power, V amptd, V p-p, V rms, V
top, V base, V max, V min, V avg

Eye/Mask Mode

NRZ Eye Measurements

Extinction Ratio, Jitter RMS, Jitter p-p, Average
Power, Crossing Percentage, Rise Time, Fall Time,
One Level, Zero Level, Eye Height, Eye Width, Signal
to Noise (Q-Factor), Duty Cycle Distortion, Bit Rate,
Eye Amplitude

RZ Eye Measurements

Extinction Ratio, Jitter RMS, Jitter p-p, Average
Power, Rise Time, Fall Time, One Level, Zero Level,
Eye Height, Eye Amplitude, Opening Factor, Eye
Width, Pulse Width, Signal to Noise (Q-Factor),
Duty Cycle, Bit Rate, Contrast Ratio

Mask Test

Open Mask, Start Mask Test, Exit Mask Test, Filter,
Mask Test Margins, Mask Test Scaling

TDR/TDT Mode

Quick TDR, TDR/TDT Setup, Normalize, Response,

Rise Time, Fall Time, ∆ Time

Standard Functions

Standard functions are available through pull down
menus and soft keys, and some functions are also
accessible through the front panel knobs

Markers

Two vertical and two horizontal, user selectable

TDR Markers

Horizontal - seconds or meter
Vertical - volts, ohms or Percent Reflection
Propagation - Dielectric Constant or Velocity

Limit Tests

Acquisition Limits

Limit Test Run Until Conditions - Off, # of
Waveforms, # of Samples

Report Action on Completion - Save waveform to
memory or disk, Save screen image to disk

Measurement Limit Test

Specify Number of Failures to Stop Limit Test

When to Fail Selected Measurement - Inside Limits,
Outside Limits, Always Fail, Never Fail

Report Action on Failure - Save waveform to
memory or disk, Save screen image to disk, Save
summary to disk

Mask Limit Test

Specify Number of Failed Mask Test Samples

Report Action on Failure - Save waveform to
memory or disk, Save screen image to disk, Save
summary to disk

Configure Measurements

Thresholds

10%, 50%, 90% or 20%, 50%, 80% or Custom

Eye Boundaries

1 and 2

Format Units for

Duty Cycle Distortion - Time or Percentage
Extinction Ratio - Ratio, Decibel or Percentage
Eye Height - Amplitude or Decibel (dB)
Eye Width - Time or Ratio
Average Power - Watts or Decibels (dB)

Top Base Definition

Standard or Custom

∆ Time Definition

First Edge Number, Edge Direction, Threshold
Second Edge Number, Edge Direction, Threshold

Quick Measure Configuration

4 User Selectable Measurements for Each Mode

Eye/Mask Mode Default Settings

Extinction Ratio, Jitter RMS, Average Power,
Crossing Percentage

Oscilloscope Mode Default Settings

Rise Time, Fall Time, Period, V amptd

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Configurable to Meet Your
Needs

The 86100A supports a wide range
of plug-ins for testing both optical
and electrical signals. Select plug­ins to get the specific bandwidth,
filtering, and sensitivity you need.

Built-in Information System

The 86100A has a context-sensitive
on-line manual providing imme­diate answers to your questions
about using the instrument. Links
on the measurement screen take
you directly to the information you
need. There is no need for a large
paper manual consuming your
shelf space.

File Sharing and Storage

Use the internal 5.5 GB hard drive
or 3.5 inch, 120 MB SuperDisk™
floppy disk drive to store instru­ment setups, waveforms, or screen
images. Images can be stored in
formats easily imported into

Histograms

Configure

Histogram State
Histogram Axis
Histogram Window

Window

Adjustable Window via Marker
Knobs

Scale

1 to 8 divisions

Axis

Math Measurements

4 User Definable Functions
Operator - Magnify, Invert,

Subtract, Versus, Min, Max

Source - Channel, Function,
Memory, Constant, Response
(TDR)

Set up and Info

Annotate Measurements
Algorithm
Configuration

Calibrate

All Calibrations

Vertical (Amplitude)
Horizontal (Time Base)
Extinction Ratio
Probe
Optical Channel

Front Panel Calibration Output Level

User Selectable –2V to 2V

Horizontal Skew Adjustment

Per Channel, User Selectable

Utilities

Set Time and Date

Show Time and Date

Remote Interface

Set GPIB Interface

Touch Screen Configuration

Calibration
Display
TouchSurround
Buttons
Interface

Upgrade Software

Upgrade Mainframe
Upgrade Module

Help

Content

About 86100A

Mainframe Serial Number
Module Serial Number
Software Revision and date
Hard Disk free space

Agilent 8349XA

Clock Recovery Trigger Module

Data Out

Clock Out

Data

Input

Channel

Input

Agilent 861XX or 8348XA

Plug-In Module

Clock/

Data

Recovery

Clock to
Mainframe
(internally
routed)

various programs for documentation and further anal­ysis. LAN interface is also available for network file
management and printing.

Powerful Display Modes

Use gray scale and color graded trace displays to gain
insight into device behavior. Waveform densities are
mapped to color or easy-to-interpret gray shades.
These are infinite persistence modes where shading
differentiates the number of times data in any indi­vidual screen pixel has been acquired.

Internal Triggering Through Clock Recovery

Very high-speed oscilloscopes are not capable of trig­gering directly on the signal under test. Typically an
external timing reference is used to synchronize the
oscilloscope to the test signal. In cases where a trigger
signal is not available, clock recovery modules are
available to derive a timing reference directly from the
waveform to be measured. The Agilent 8349XA series
of clock recovery modules cover the three most
popular transmission media used today—electrical
lines, multimode, and single-mode fiber. A built-in
coupler reduces external hardware requirements. All
four modules have excellent jitter performance to
ensure accurate measurements. Each clock recovery
module is designed to synchronize to a variety of
common transmission rates.

Improved Autoscaling

Autoscaling has been significantly improved to provide
quick horizontal and vertical scaling of both pulse and
eye-diagram (RZ and NRZ) waveforms.

Time Domain Reflectometer
(TDR)

TDR measurements are focused
on high-speed applications where
it is necessary to optimize elec­trical system components, such
as microstrip lines, PC board
traces, SMA edge launchers and
coaxial cables where imperfec­tions cause signal distortion and
reflections. Signal integrity is a
critical requirement in high­speed digital signal transmission.

Gated Triggering

Trigger gating port allows easy
external control of data acquisi-

tion for circulating loop or burst-data experiments.
Use TTL-compatible signals to control when the
instrument does and does not acquire data.

Easier Calibrations

Calibrating your instrument has been simplified by
placing all the performance level indicators and cali­bration procedures in a single high-level location. This
provides greater confidence in the measurements
made and saves time in maintaining equipment.

Stimulus Response Testing Using the Agilent
86130A BitAlyzer

®

Error performance analysis represents an essential
part of digital transmission test. The Agilent 86100A
and 86130A BitAlyzer error performance analyzer
share a common interface and together create a
powerful test solution.

Transitioning from the Agilent 83480A
to the 86100A

The 86100A has been designed to be a virtual drop-in
replacement for the Agilent 83480A digital communi­cations analyzer and Agilent 54750A wide-bandwidth
oscilloscope. All modules used in the Agilent 83480A
and 54750A can also be used in the 86100A. The
remote programming command set for the 86100A has
been designed for direct compatibility with software
written to control the 83480A and 54750A. (Due to
improvements and updates in performance, a small set
of remote commands may need minor modifications to
control the 86100A.) Due to a significantly faster
processor and improved measurement algorithms,
tests run on the 86100A should require less time than

those performed with the
83480A or 54750A.

Modules for the 86100A
Infiniium DCA

The 86100A has a large family of
plug-in modules designed for a
broad range of data rates for
optical and electrical waveforms.
The 86100A can hold up to 2
modules for a total of 4 measure­ment channels.

The Agilent 86101A module and
86103A has two measurement
channels, one optical and one
electrical. The electrical channel

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BitAlyzer is a U.S. registered trademark of SyntheSys Research, Inc.