[Test Case Sharing] The Secret Weapon for Improving Signal Integrity: A New Solution for Testing TDR Impedance with a Real-time Oscilloscope

Modern circuit design and signal transmission undoubtedly place higher and higher demands on engineers. As transmission rates continue to rise, signal integrity issues have become a key factor affecting system performance. To ensure signal integrity, impedance matching is an indispensable part.

TDR (Time Domain Reflectometry) is a technique for measuring impedance characteristics by observing reflected signals in a transmission line . The advantage of this method is that it can quickly and accurately detect discontinuities in a transmission line, such as impedance mismatches, open circuits, and short circuits. For high-speed circuit design, TDR has become an indispensable tool.

New Choice for TDR Testing

In this context, Tektronix launched a TDR (time domain reflection) impedance test solution based on a real-time oscilloscope, allowing engineers to easily cope with impedance matching challenges and thus improve product quality.

Traditional TDR testing generally uses dedicated TDR equipment, but these devices are usually expensive and complicated to operate. The Tektronix solution uses a high-performance real-time oscilloscope combined with advanced software algorithms, which not only greatly reduces the test cost, but also significantly simplifies the operation process.

Program Features:

1. High resolution and high precision: Our real-time oscilloscopes have excellent sampling rate and bandwidth, which can capture the most subtle signal changes and ensure high resolution and high precision of measurement results.

2. Convenient user interface: The simple and intuitive software interface makes setup and operation extremely easy. It can automatically complete one-click calibration of open, short, and load, automatically set up channels, and complete complex TDR tests in just a few steps. It can save test results, reports, and impedance curves, and supports offline analysis.

3. Real-time data analysis: It can measure the single-ended or differential impedance, inductance and capacitance of the specified area, and provide real-time impedance curves to help you quickly identify and locate impedance mismatch points, facilitating debugging and optimization.

4. Multi-function integration: In addition to the TDR test function, the real-time oscilloscope also has other signal analysis functions, which greatly improves the utilization efficiency of the equipment.

Usage scenarios and advantages

TDR test solutions are widely used in many fields such as PCB design, connector testing, and measurement of high-speed signal transmission lines. For the following problems, they can achieve twice the result with half the effort:

• Impedance matching in PCB design: Quickly detect impedance changes on PCB to ensure the stability and reliability of the design.
  

• High-speed connector testing: Verify the impedance characteristics of the connector to ensure lossless transmission of high-speed signals.

• Transmission line troubleshooting: Accurately locate the fault point in the transmission line and deal with the hidden dangers in time.

Many customers have experienced this real-time oscilloscope TDR impedance test solution, and they all said that the solution greatly simplified the measurement process while improving the accuracy and reliability of the test results.

Here are some of our customers’ feedback:

Using this real-time oscilloscope has saved me a lot of time, and I no longer have to deal with complicated dedicated TDR equipment.

Accurate impedance measurement helps us avoid a lot of rework and debugging work. It is really practical!

Conclusion

Improving signal integrity has never been so easy! The real-time oscilloscope TDR impedance test solution provides engineers with an efficient and economical solution with its high performance, easy operation and multi-function features. Whether you are a professional engineer or an electronics enthusiast, as long as it involves the transmission and design of high-frequency signals, this solution will become an indispensable tool in your work.

Contact us now to experience this innovative TDR impedance test solution or learn more about TDR impedance testing.