Techniques for Extending Real-Time Oscilloscope Bandwidth

Over the past decade, data communication rates have increased by a factor well over 10x. Data rates that were once 1 Gb/sec and below are now routinely greater than 10 Gb/sec. RF and Optical Communications utilize complex modulation schemes and low amplitude signals to meet channel data capacity and regulatory requirements. This has driven the need for very high bandwidth real-time oscilloscopes for the validation, certification, and debugging of these new system designs. As a result, oscilloscope designers are driven to extend the performance of real-time oscilloscopes to cover requirements up into the 60 GHz-70 GHz range and beyond. This article compares the techniques used to extend the bandwidth performance of real-time scopes, and introduces the latest innovation in this pursuit — Asynchronous Time Interleaving.
Issue:  KIPiS 2016 #4