Davidson, Scott

Fundamentally, jitter is any unwanted deviation in signal edge timing from where it should be. Jitter is a fact of life in the design of embedded systems and communication links. As such, for systems to operate reliably under a broad range of conditions, thorough characterization of jitter is a must.

With complexity on the rise, modern mixed signal designs are proving to be a worthy adversary to designers. Embedded design engineers are having to wear multiple hats in order to efficiently troubleshoot and debug the latest designs. Debugging today’s designs requires working in a mixed domain environment, from DC to RF, with analog and digital signals, and serial and parallel buses. That means a modern measuring device should be combined and needs to give designers a more comprehensive set of functions and features to support efficient verification and debugging of embedded designs. To meet this need Tektronix has developed a new integrated oscilloscope MDO3000 that combines 6(!) instruments in a single small, portable package able to provide insight into both time and frequency domains. Find more in the present article.