Viewing and analyzing signal integrity simulation analysis results

    Almost all signal integrity simulation analysis software's viewing and analysis tools are weak, and most of them can only do simple waveform parameter measurements. Moreover, because they do not support Sinx/x interpolation technology, the accuracy of the measurement cannot be fully guaranteed. The birth of the oscilloscope offline software N8900A solves this problem. As long as the simulated data is generated into a .CSV or other format file and imported into the N8900A offline software, the simulated waveform of the simulation software can be viewed, measured and analyzed just like the actual waveform measured by the oscilloscope.

Figure 1 N8900A offline software interface

• The operation controls of the virtual oscilloscope are the same as those of a real oscilloscope, allowing you to quickly move the waveform and zoom in on the part of interest.

• It is essentially the PC version of the Infiniium oscilloscope software, supporting powerful measurement and analysis tools.

• Supports waveform math operations, filters and FFT spectrum analysis, serial signal decoding, advanced jitter analysis, noise analysis, real-time eye diagram analysis, clock recovery, 8B/10B decoding, etc.

• The display of measurement and analysis results can be done in one or more windows, supporting horizontal and vertical sliders. The size of each window is adjustable, and the display method and layout can be customized.

• Bookmark annotations are very simple to use and are divided into four types. 1. Automatically bookmark items for automatic measurement. For example, if you measure the rise time, 'Rise time, 1.00ns' will be displayed at the corresponding waveform position. 2. Lock the bookmark of a waveform. You can share your personal opinions, views, and professional knowledge on a specific position of the waveform. 3. It is also to lock the bookmark of a waveform, but you can add an additional invisible mark. Only when the mouse hovers over the waveform bookmark can you see the information in the invisible mark, which is conducive to making the entire waveform screen simple. 4. Floating bookmark annotations are not locked to any waveform and can usually be used to explain some general situations, such as test environment.

Figure 2 N8900A FFT function

    The N8900A Offline Software comes standard with a number of features to help you view, analyze, share, and record signals better and faster:

    Navigation: Move waveforms up, down, left, and right, and zoom in and out of waveforms at any position. For longer waveform records, you can move waveforms based on time. If you have multiple bookmarks for key areas of the waveform, you can move waveforms by bookmark, jumping from one label position to the next.
    View: View up to 8 waveforms simultaneously, with waveforms arranged in 1 window, 2 windows, or 4 windows, and windows can be arranged side by side, tab indexed, placed at will, and zoomed.
    Controls: Horizontal (5ps/div to 20s/div); Vertical (100uV/div to 1000 V/div); Offset (+/- 1000V).
    Measurements: More than 50 automatic measurements, up to 20 measurements displayed simultaneously, customizable result display windows (size, position, information) X and Y cursors with dynamic variable values.
    Analysis: 20 math operators, including FFT and filter, 4 independent math functions, which can also be cascaded.
Histogram display of measurement results; template test; measurement limit test.
    View window: analog waveform window, math window, spectrum window, measurement result window (can be displayed simultaneously, in pages, or freely laid out)
    Test document creation: right-click to copy, up to 100 bookmarks, two coordinate scales coexist: traditional scale and numerical scale The difference between two points changes in real time with the cursor The window display mode of waveforms and analysis results can be defined by yourself All waveforms and settings can be saved or loaded in one step.

    The jitter and serial data analysis options of the N8900A offline software help perform advanced jitter and eye diagram analysis of high-speed digital signals.

    EZJIT Jitter Analysis Software Basic Edition: Characterize and evaluate the most common jitter measurements, including TIE, cycle-cycle, and N-cycle jitter. For any measurement, EZJIT software displays the jitter distribution with a histogram, a trend graph showing jitter changes over time, and a jitter spectrum showing the distribution of jitter on different frequency spectra.

Figure 3 Basic jitter parameter analysis

    EZJIT+ Jitter Analysis Software Advanced Edition: In addition to all the functions of EZJIT, EZJIT+ can also separate random jitter Rj and deterministic jitter Dj and their components. The jitter separation results are displayed in a separate window, and you can observe the jitter results and time domain waveforms at the same time.

Figure 4 Advanced jitter analysis

    SDA Serial Data Analysis Software: This software supports three functions: 1. Clock recovery can be performed for serial signals with embedded clocks. 2. Real-time eye diagram test can be completed based on the recovered clock. 3. Decoding can be performed for high-speed serial signals encoded with 8B/10B. If the eye diagram test fails, it can also restore the eye diagram to a time domain waveform and indicate which specific position of the waveform failed, observe the decoding of the waveform that failed the test, or perform further analysis on it.

Figure 5 Eye diagram analysis

Figure 6 Combined analysis of eye diagram and advanced jitter

    In summary, the N8900A oscilloscope offline software can be used to view and analyze the simulation waveforms of the signal integrity simulation software. The main functions of waveform viewing and analysis are as follows.

    Waveform:

    Up to 8 waveforms can be opened at the same time (channels 1 to 4, reference waveforms 1 to 4). The application software supports up to 16-bit vertical resolution.
   

    Supported file formats:

    Infiniium oscilloscopes: .osc, .set, .bin, .h5, .wfm
    InfiniiVision oscilloscopes: .bin, .h5,
    other formats (EDA, other brands of instruments): csv, .tsv, .txt
   

    View Window:

    The time domain waveform that shares a time base, a spectrum display window, a measurement result window, a decoding window for each serial bus, and a jitter analysis result window. Up to 8 waveforms can be viewed simultaneously. The time domain waveform can be displayed in 1, 2, or 4 windows. The relative position between windows can be customized and can also be displayed in index window form.

    Controls:
    Horizontal (5ps/div to 20s/div); Vertical (100uV/div to 1000 V/div); Maximum vertical offset: (+/- 1000V).

    FFT:

    0 Hz to 1T Hz, start frequency, stop frequency, center frequency, sweep width, resolution bandwidth, peak power meter.

    Make test documents:
    right click to copy waveform, up to 100 bookmark annotations, analog and numerical scales, the difference between two points is displayed in real time with the cursor.
   

    Supported display resolutions:
    User selectable, up to 1600 x 900

    Save image:
    right click to copy to Windows buffer. Images can be saved in .png, .jpg, .bmp, .tif format, including user selected settings and time stamp.

    PC operating system, memory and hard disk requirements:
    • Microsoft Win 7 64-bit, 4G RAM, 1G free hard disk space.

    Measurement:
    User can customize the result display window (size, position), and display up to 20 measurement results at the same time.
    • The difference between two points changes in real time as the X and Y cursors move.
    • Time: Rise time, fall time, positive pulse width, negative pulse width, time difference between any two signal edges, time difference between two adjacent edges, number of positive pulses, number of negative pulses, period, frequency, duty cycle, burst width, burst period, burst interval, Tmin, Tmax, Tvolt, edge time, slope.
    • Voltage: Average, RMS, Amplitude, Bottom, Top, Overshoot, Preshoot, Crossing point, V Upper, V Middle, V Lower, Pulse Top Value, Pulse Base Value, Pulse Amplitude, Area.
    • Clock: Time Interval Error TIE (with EZJIT or EZJIT+ option), N-Period, Adjacent Period, Adjacent Positive Pulse, Adjacent Negative Pulse, Adjacent Duty Cycle
    • Data: N-UI, UI-UI, Data Rate, Clock Recovery Rate, DDPWS, De-emphasis
    • Mixed: Area, Slope
    • Frequency: FFT Magnitude, FFT Phase, FFT Delta Frequency, FFT Delta Magnitude, Peak Power Meter
    • Eye Diagram: Eye Height, Eye Width, Eye Jitter, Eye Crossing Ratio, Q Factor, Duty Cycle Distortion

    Analysis:
    • Measurement histogram, mask test, measurement limit test, up to 4 independent/cascaded math functions
    • Simple operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, average, absolute value, gain, maximum, least squares, square root, Lissajous
    • Advanced operations: integration, FFT magnitude, FFT phase, high pass filter, low pass filter, smoothing filter, common mode, differential, inverse differential
    • User defined functions: import .m Matlab files, Butterworth, FIR, LFE, RTEye, Sqrtsumofsquares