PCIe failure analysis tool, you will become a fault location expert after learning it

In the production of motherboards for servers, PCs and other electronic devices, production line failures often occur, requiring failure analysis engineers (FA) and maintenance engineers (RMA) to quickly locate faulty parts in the production process, especially some high-speed signal failures. Throughout the process, they often face a lot of pressure and responsibilities, such as:

Customer complaints require timely feedback

Identification and internal analysis of bad risk points

Continuously improve the design checklist and promote RD to optimize the design

Guide production process improvement

The team’s capabilities need to be continuously improved

The particularity of high-speed signals

However, to cope with these pressures, engineers are often required to meet high requirements. At present, due to the nature of their work, FA/RMA engineers often have difficulty in dealing with the above challenges, especially failures related to high-speed signals. Due to the particularity of high-speed signals, such signals are also prone to problems, among which PCIe signals are a typical example.

main reason:

High -speed signals have high bandwidth, fast speed, and therefore less signal redundancy;

 PCIe signal is the key to high-speed signal interconnection;

 There are many types of interfaces for PCIe interconnection;

 Lack of testing methods, often only low-end oscilloscopes and multimeters, which cannot be used to troubleshoot high-speed signal problems;

 Lack of systematic signal integrity knowledge, often relying on product development;

Therefore, FA/RMA engineers need to have sufficient means and the lowest possible learning cost to quickly verify faults such as PCIe high-speed bus during harsh customer complaints and production line operation time , so that they can provide effective feedback to RD faster and better, and even promote RD to optimize design to ensure that the team can achieve continuous positive development and evaluation.

Figure 1. Tektronix's new generation TMT4 PCIe performance tester

New generation TMT4 PCIe performance comprehensive tester

In response to the challenges faced by FA/RMA engineers mentioned above, Tektronix has launched a new generation of TMT4 PCIe performance comprehensive tester.

Figure 2. Rich hardware interface forms to cope with various product forms

This instrument integrates rich and convenient functions, directly accessing PCIe signal links and physical layer details, and intuitive diagrams help engineers learn and master:

Supports one-click scanning function for PCIe Gen3/4 signals, and scans the transmit and receive performance of all links simultaneously.

Supports a variety of hardware interfaces, such as CEM, M.2, U.2, U.3, etc., and adapts to various signal connections.

Super fast, it only takes 1-2 minutes to scan all 16 PCIe Gen4 bus links.

Learn it in one go, no learning cost required, access it through the web page, and complete the test with just one or two keystrokes.

Provide professional reports to facilitate problem analysis and location with RD.

Figure 3. Professional-grade PCIe physical layer Tx/Rx analysis

With the TMT4 PCIe comprehensive performance tester, the entire FA/RMA engineering team can submit comprehensive PCIe link transmitter and receiver test results in just 1-2 minutes, thereby providing expert-level analysis reports. This can also help engineers respond to customer complaints more quickly, as well as help engineers quickly identify problems, ensure the normal operation of the production line, maximize the value of engineers, and reduce production line costs.