Keysight Technologies offers 65-GSa/s, 20-GHz arbitrary waveform generator

Keysight Technologies, Inc., which is the soon-to-be independent electronic test and measurement business of Agilent Technologies (see "Agilent electronic test unit assumes Keysight Technologies name") has unveiled the M8195A arbitrary waveform generator. The modular instrument operates at 65-GSa/s with a bandwidth of 20 GHz to support generation of digital, multilevel signals. The rate and bandwidth combination make the M8195A the best performing instrument of its kind, Keysight asserts. Keysight expects the unit to find favor for the examination of electrical and optical links with complex modulated signals up to 32 GBaud or more. These applications could include multilevel signaling for Ethernet applications at 100 Gbps and above, as well as optical coherent transmission. For example, the M8195A can be used to generate two pairs of complex modulated baseband signals (four channels total) for coherent optical applications such as those using dual polarization. Or the four channels could contain PAM4 signals for 400 Gigabit Ethernet design applications. Technicians can combine multiple M8195A modules to transmit 16 fully synchronous channels in a single five-slot AXIe chassis, according to Keysight. A two-slot version of the instrument also is available. The M8195A offers both out-of-the box and in-situ calibration and signal predistortion capabilities, which the company says ensures "exceptionally clean signals." Users also can embed or de-embed the channel between the generator and the device under test. They also can change of parameters at runtime. The instrument has up to 16 GSa of waveform memory to enable the creation of long, realistic signal scenarios. The instrument’s amplitude is up to 1 Vpp(se), 2 Vpp(diff), with a voltage window of -1.0 V to +3.3 V. The intrinsic jitter (RJrms) is <200 fs @ 32 Gbps PRBS 2¹¹-1. Keysight expects to begin shipments of the M8195A arbitrary waveform generator this September 30, with an entry price of $100,000. For more information on test equipment and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.