Brock LaMeres, Hardware Design Engineer, Agilent Technologies
Brent Holcombe, Hardware Design Engineer, Agilent Technologies
George Marshall, Product Design Engineer, Precision Interconnect

Connector-less technology is being adopted as the industry standard when connecting a logic analyzer to a target system to perform functional verification. As data rates of inter-chip busses continue to increase, the need for advanced probing interconnect becomes critical. Factors such as capacitive loading and location on the bus can cause the probe to break the system. In addition, inductance in the probing interconnect can cause the logic analyzer to collect invalid data. Finally, with shrinking geometries on printed circuit boards, the overall footprint of the probing connection can interfere with the floor planning of high-speed systems. All of these factors have driven the test and measurement community to adopt innovative ways to make the physical connection to the signals being observed. This paper presents the electrical and mechanical advantages of using a connector-less logic analyzer probe versus the traditional connector-based probe. Empirical and simulation results are given to compare the loading, performance, and mechanical reliability between the two methods of probing a system. The advantages and disadvantages are presented and discussed