—Agilent Technologies says it has launched the world’s highest-performance oscilloscopes in its Infiniium Z-Series, with 10 models (one model pictures at right) ranging from 20 to 63 GHz, significantly faster processing than previous generations and a new user interface. The company says that the equipment can be synchronized to measure up to 40 channels simultaneously with a maximum 63-GHz real-time oscilloscope bandwidth, on up to 10 of the devices; all of the models are bandwidth-upgradable to 63 GHz.
Agilent said several of the Z-series have already been deployed around the world, and that it is designed to allow engineers to more quickly bring devices and products to market that incorporate the latest technologies.
This week, the company also touted its FieldFox for testing radar systems and a next-generation system for measuring flicker noise, a characteristic which can affect performance of circuits in multiple applications including RF and high-speed wireline communications.
–Benchmarking company Global Wireless Solutions launched a smartphone app for Android this week that allows basic diagnostic analysis of network data at a low cost. Watch the video interview with GWS CEO Paul Carter.
–Elektrobit developed a software-defined radio (SDR) test environment for the use of MIMO in satellite communications as a result of a multi-year study with the European Space Agency (ESA). The test environment is based on EB’s Race SDA platform for developing, evaluating and demonstrating wireless technology.
—Anritsu has been focusing on optical communications testing solutions this week at OFC 2014 in San Francisco, showcasing its testing capabilities in signal integrity, 400G Super Channel and 100G active optical cable (AOC) applications, along with handheld options for field testing both legacy and NGN. Anritsu’s equipment is part of PAM4 demos at the Teledyne LeCroy booth and a demo with Mellanox Technologies on optical module performance for 100G.
—Tektronix Communications says it now has the industry first fully-integrated 40Gb/s programmable pattern generator (PPG), that contributes to a complete 40Gb/s BERT solution for serial data testing at 40Gb/s.
The company said that design engineers working on high-speed data and long-haul communications have had a dearth of good test equipment solutions for 40G, and noted that, “it’s critical that test equipment offer performance that exceeds what is being testing. Otherwise the instrumentation becomes the limiting factor and reliable test results cannot be attained.”
—Spirent Communications, meanwhile, launched its four-port Spirent dX2 test module that supports next-generation CFP4 optical transceivers and supports both 40G and 100G interfaces in telecom networks.
You can also watch this week’s interview with Steve Hickling, product manager at Spirent, on testing for GNSS spoofing.
—Fluke Networks launched a pocket-sized Ethernet network tester for home or professional LANs that has smartphone integration, automation and cloud storage for test data. The new LinkSprinter has two models, one priced at $199 and one at $299, exclusively on Amazon.com.
