Power Integrity Analyzer, Reference Solution

Keysight Technologies

Power Integrity Analyzer, Reference Solution

As IC density increases, improving power consumption becomes more important. Doing so can mean reducing the tolerances on each component within the design.

Ripple, noise and transients are riding on the DC power rails, and you need to make sure they are within the correct tolerance band.

Next Generation Power Intrigrity Test Challenges

Power in an integrated circuit design is a tightly controlled commodity. As the affordable microcontroller market has exploded in the last several years, there have been increasing demands on power distribution networks, resulting in lower supply voltages. Lowering the supply voltages helps to reduce power consumption. Many designs today have a 3.3 V (and sometimes 1.1 V) supply. As those supplies’ voltage have become smaller, so has the tolerance on those supplies (typically ± 5% range).

You need to scrutinize DC power rails and voltage lines for quality and intrigrity. Ripple, noise and transients are riding on these voltage rails, and before you can reduce them, you need to measure them. The goal is to make sure the power rail is clean. Fundamentaly, you need to measure ever smaller and faster AC signals riding on the top of your DC.

Power Integrity Analyzer Reference Solution

Keysight’s power integrity analyzer reference solution provides a specialized power measurement solution with the industry only 10-bit, 8-GHz oscilloscope (Infiniium S-Series), specialized N7020A power rail probe, industry’s highest sensitivity N2820A high-sensitivity current probes.

This solution helps you more easily find and analyze the AC signals of your DC power supply that you were unable to see before.

Hardware – Instruments

Infiniium S-Series oscilloscope

he Infiniium S-Series oscilloscopes incorporate innovative technology designed to deliver superior measurements. The new 10-bit ADC and low-noise front-end technology work together to provide up to 8 GHz performance with the industry’s best signal integrity. The S-Series has an advanced frame with a solid state drive for fast boot-up; a capacitive multi-touch 15” display for easy touch operation; and a high-powered motherboard for fast processing.

N7020A power rail probe

The N7020A power rail probe is specially designed to measure the power rail on DC signals. It has a 1:1 attenuation ration that adds only 10% of the connected oscilloscope’s baseline noise and a large offset of ± 24 Vpp that enables users to set their oscilloscope to the maximum sensitivity.

N2820A 3 MHz/50 uA high-sensitivity AC/DC current probe

The new N2820A Series high-sensitivity current probes address the need for high-sensitivity current measurements with a wide dynamic range. These probes also offer the advantage of small physical connections to the DUT because today’s application environments require an extremely small form factor. The N2820A Series probes have higher sensitivity – up to 200X greater than existing clamp-on current probes with sub-milliampere low-level sensitivity.

N9311X-100 close field probe set

N9311X RF and Microwave accessory kit helps to find the noise source of the power rail without disconnecting circuits or probing. It works with the oscilloscope’s FFT function to show the RF domain signal.

Software

Software – Multi-channel measurement

N8834A MultiScope application enables connection of up to 10 oscilloscopes to achieve 40 channels of acquisition in a single time base. The N8834A provides a convient solution without additional programming needed.

Software – Automation measurement

N5467B Infiniium user-defined application helps you build your own automation measurement test so you don’t have to manually measure the same point several times.