Agilent touts free PLL analysis software

From Agilent Technologies Inc. comes advanced software for making precise phase-locked loop (PLL) measurements, also called jitter transfer measurements. Used with the Agilent 86100C DCA-J wideband oscilloscope, the software can test a wide variety of PLL designs and has been approved by the PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG) to perform PCIe PLL compliance measurements.

The Agilent 86100CU-400 PLL and jitter spectrum measurement software is a free application that makes fast, accurate and repeatable PLL measurements using a precision jitter source and receiver, says the company. This software also provides valuable insight into the root causes of jitter by recording jitter spectrum/phase noise measurements on data and clock signals.

The 86100CU-400 includes preconfigured setups and automated report generation to verify adherence to the PCIe 1.1 and 2.0 PLL compliance test guidelines, SONET/SDH jitter transfer tests, PCIe reference clock measurements, spread-spectrum clocking (SSC) modulation analysis, and more. This Microsoft Excel-based application runs on an external PC or on an Agilent 86100C DCA-J oscilloscope with MS Excel installed.

According to Agilent, engineers can easily customize the oscilloscope and software for unique PLL applications. The oscilloscope's flexible architecture can test inputs/outputs from 50Mbit/s to 13.5Gbit/s (data signals) and 25MHz to 6.75GHz (clock signals). According to the company, in a matter of seconds, the system accurately characterizes PLL bandwidths of more than 80MHz. This precision measurement can take an hour or more when it is performed manually.