Test & measurement E
ngineers involved in high-speed serial design know that when data rates start exceeding 10–16 Gbps, the quality and fidelity of the measurement equipment become a decisive factor in whether signal integrity issues can be accurately diagnosed and characterised. In fact, compromising on the oscilloscope choice and missing out on issues because of that can bring critical consequences such as high measurement uncertainty and adding unnecessary extra margin to the product. When debugging interconnects, characterising high-speed channels, or validating compliance to serial standards (PCIe, USB, etc.), the oscilloscope is sometimes confused as a mere observer, when in reality, it becomes part of the measurement system and an extension of the designer’s awareness. As any component in the circuit signal path influences what you observe with its own imperfections and limitations (we shall call them “characteristics”), the same holds true with the oscilloscope. Oscilloscopes and probes load the circuit and act as distortion lenses on signals; the more the lens distorts, the more the designer is fooled by what they see.
PRECISION MEETS VERSATILITY Tektronix has been working relentlessly with a team of engineers with decades of analogue expertise to engineer the best signal path ever with an obsessive focus on noise, distortion and linearity. The result is the new 7 Series DPO, the oscilloscope with an extremely advanced front end input circuitry. This machine has been specifically engineered for improved signal fidelity delivering a high effective number of bits (ENOB) across a bandwidth range between 8GHz and 25GHz. A flat frequency response and several patent-protected design elements in the signal path led to the perfect engineering companion for signal integrity analysis, accurate capture of single-shot events, and multi-channel RF signal analysis. In fact, some of its specifications can directly rival industry-leading Spectrum Analyzers. The new 7 Series DPO presents an ultra-low- noise front-end so you can see your signal as it really is. From the analogue front end to the analogue-to-digital conversion stage, efforts have been focused to minimise signal degradation along the signal path, hence minimising noise impacts that are the cause of distorted waveform acquisition. A 10-bit ADC is combined with a 125GS/s sampling stage for each of the four input channels. Outstanding low random noise, as well as low intrinsic jitter complete this engineering masterpiece. Signal integrity engineers have very demanding requirements, not all of them affected by the hardware architecture. They often deal with serial data where the clock is embedded (e.g., NRZ or PAM4) and they need software or hardware-based clock recovery and de-embedding for fixtures, probes, and connectors to account for losses in their signal paths. They need tools for conducting full jitter analysis and rapidly retrieving all signal characteristics when validating a PCIe link or a SERDES interface.
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A NEXT-GEN OSCILLOSCOPE FOR PHYSICS RESEARCH, SIGNAL INTEGRITY, AND MULTICHANNEL RF
By Andrea Vinci, technical marketing manager, Tektronix
Figure 1. DPO7 with 2 different eye diagram analysis display windows (source: Tektronix)
Figure 2: DPO7 dual jitter summary screen (source: Tektronix) November 2025 Instrumentation Monthly
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