Jitter injection and the measurement of jitter are particularly important parameters for high-speed serial systems. Various costly bench instruments are available all with the goal of assuring that the devices will eventually operate correctly in their mission environments. Once the device is placed in a system, the same physical layer bench instruments rapidly become inadequate. In this paper, we will present a paradigm shifting technique that performs protocol analysis in conjunction with physical layer jitter evaluation. The benefits of this low-cost solution are numerous. Physical-layer tests can be performed while the system under test is processing real bus traffic. Fixturing is included and correlations between protocol failures and physical layer signal integrity can now be made quickly and cost-effectively.
Barbara P. Aichinger, Vice President and Co-founder, FuturePlus Systems
Barbara P. Aichinger is Vice President and co-founder of FuturePlus Systems, the leading world wide analysis probe provider. She has over 20 years experience with various bus architectures and has spoken on Test and Measurements topics world wide. Prior to founding FuturePlus in 1991, she was a Principal Engineer at Digital Equipment Corporation. Barbara holds a BSEE and MSEE is married and has three children. In her spare time she plays competitive tennis and holds several New Hampshire and New England titles.
