Video Review and Teardown of a Keysight MSO-S Series 10-bit 20GS/s Oscilloscope

[Hugoneus]

In this episode Shahriar does an extensive review and teardown of the Keysight (Agilent) MSO-S Series 10-bit 20GS/s Oscilloscope. This scope supports bandwidths up to 8GHz and 400M points of memory per channel. With hardware 10-bit ADCs as well as an ultra low-noise front-end, this scope offers an impressive dynamic range on all four channels. All scope features are software upgradable.
The teardown consists of a close look at the acquisition board and the system blocks diagram. Various elements such as the ADC structure, FPGAs, memory and the time-base are all examines. The scope offers a +/-12ppb time-base with a 100fs jitter noise floor. Some basic performance measurements are also presented such as noise and SFDR.
The wireless experiment shows the performance of the scope in demodulating very low-power signals on an RF carrier. A -75dBm 2.5GHs QPSK signal can be demodulated by the scope. The instrument can also demodulate a 16QAM signal in presence of an interfering signal which is 44dB higher in signal power. All demodulation experiments are performed using the Keysight VSA.
The backplane experiments demonstrate the scope’s capability to perform jitter and noise analysis on multi-gigabit serial links. The built-in equalization software suites are used to find the FFE coefficients and those coefficients are used to perform hardware equalization in an FPGA communication link.

Watch the video here: [1 Hour & 30 Minutes]
http://youtu.be/l-PE7bNIDY0

More videos at The Signal Path:
http://www.TheSignalPath.com

[dr.diesel]

NICE.

Ok, how much does it cost base, then with all options?

[Hugoneus]

NICE.

Ok, how much does it cost base, then with all options?

Starting from about $20k all the way to >$100k with the options.

[free_electron]

they use a rotational sampler. Wehn i did the review of that 30GHz beast they had a similar architecture.
the first chip on the hybrid splits the incoming signal in time interleaved analog diff pairs.
the adc then itself does more sampling and spreads the load on different converters.

[Hugoneus]

they use a rotational sampler. Wehn i did the review of that 30GHz beast they had a similar architecture.
the first chip on the hybrid splits the incoming signal in time interleaved analog diff pairs.
the adc then itself does more sampling and spreads the load on different converters.

Yes, the only thing I wish they had done was to allow for 40GS/s on a single channel (which I suspect they could have done.)

[es]

http://www.keysight.com/main/eventDetail.jspx?cc=CA&lc=eng&ckey=2451162&nid=-536902447.0.00&id=2451162

There is a webcast and PDF slides on their web site. The slides are well worth a look.

[vaualbus]

Amazing video like always.Do you think that in the feature we will see more scope with 10bit ADC or for the rigol and other low end scopes we will remain to the 8bit ones?
Also I have see the photos on twitter of you at lecroy about the 100ghz scope. We will se a review in the feature?

[Hugoneus]

Amazing video like always.Do you think that in the feature we will see more scope with 10bit ADC or for the rigol and other low end scopes we will remain to the 8bit ones?
Also I have see the photos on twitter of you at lecroy about the 100ghz scope. We will se a review in the feature?

Rigol doesn't make their own ASICS, but it is likely that higher resolution ADCs from TI or ADI will find their way into low-end scopes.

[vaualbus]

but as far as I saw on the part list we can find adc up to 1Gs/s for example from LT. An If I rember right up 2 or so from AD. Nothingh to compare to 20Gs/s!
 

[Hugoneus]

but as far as I saw on the part list we can find adc up to 1Gs/s for example from LT. An If I rember right up 2 or so from AD. Nothingh to compare to 20Gs/s!

5GS/s ADCs are available from various vendors and >80GS/s 8-bit ADCs are available from Fujitsu (for telecom applications). But you are right that the ASICs in high-end scopes are all made by Keysight/Tektronix/LeCroy.

[daqq]

Great video! Thanks for the explanations, teardowns etc.

edit: Removed question which has already been answered.

[Lukas]

Amazing video like always.Do you think that in the feature we will see more scope with 10bit ADC or for the rigol and other low end scopes we will remain to the 8bit ones?
Also I have see the photos on twitter of you at lecroy about the 100ghz scope. We will se a review in the feature?

Rigol doesn't make their own ASICS, but it is likely that higher resolution ADCs from TI or ADI will find their way into low-end scopes.

They already have: http://jaunty-electronics.com/blog/2013/10/look-inside-teledyne-lecroy-hdo4024/ Tek also uses TI ADCs in their low end scopes (I've been curious and pulled apart the firmware update...) It seems as if Agi^H^H^H Keysight are the only one left in the business with doing custom ADCs even in their low-end scopes. For reference, see the recent DSOX3000T Teardown, there were some power testpoints labeled TALON_. Talon is the ADC: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/agilent-2000x-has-lost-a-channel/

It's really great to see instruments like these on Youtube. Keep it up!

I'm wondering whether all these ICs with heatsinks are FPGA's. I'm guessing some of these may be ASICs... Do you still have the Board and take hi-res photos of it? This would really add much value to the video.

I'm wondering who designed the new infiniium scope app GUI. The new app may provide nice features like placing waveforms on external screens, but the main screen looks way more cluttered to me than the old one. Their custom theme for the scope app is really ugly too, just look at all the horrible gradients and misproportioned up/down buttons next to the input fields. The old one was much better, they didn't to any custom theming, just the bare Windows controls. But the migration to ugly custom themes seems to be part of the Keysight branding stuff, since the Connection expert application also got some crazy theme...

[vaualbus]

By the way LT not have 1GS/s ADCs. The higher I can find is the maxi MAX109 that is a 8bit 2.0GS/s ADC.

[vaualbus]

Amazing video like always.Do you think that in the feature we will see more scope with 10bit ADC or for the rigol and other low end scopes we will remain to the 8bit ones?
Also I have see the photos on twitter of you at lecroy about the 100ghz scope. We will se a review in the feature?

Rigol doesn't make their own ASICS, but it is likely that higher resolution ADCs from TI or ADI will find their way into low-end scopes.

They already have: http://jaunty-electronics.com/blog/2013/10/look-inside-teledyne-lecroy-hdo4024/ Tek also uses TI ADCs in their low end scopes (I've been curious and pulled apart the firmware update...) It seems as if Agi^H^H^H Keysight are the only one left in the business with doing custom ADCs even in their low-end scopes. For reference, see the recent DSOX3000T Teardown, there were some power testpoints labeled TALON_. Talon is the ADC: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/agilent-2000x-has-lost-a-channel/

It's really great to see instruments like these on Youtube. Keep it up!

I'm wondering whether all these ICs with heatsinks are FPGA's. I'm guessing some of these may be ASICs... Do you still have the Board and take hi-res photos of it? This would really add much value to the video.

I'm wondering who designed the new infiniium scope app GUI. The new app may provide nice features like placing waveforms on external screens, but the main screen looks way more cluttered to me than the old one. Their custom theme for the scope app is really ugly too, just look at all the horrible gradients and misproportioned up/down buttons next to the input fields. The old one was much better, they didn't to any custom theming, just the bare Windows controls. But the migration to ugly custom themes seems to be part of the Keysight branding stuff, since the Connection expert application also got some crazy theme...

The photo you linked is not from the lecroy scope I was said I was speaking about a 100Ghz 240Gs/s scope. Here a photo of it: http://teledynelecroy.com/100ghz/. Seem very good and very expensive!

[Hugoneus]

Also I have see the photos on twitter of you at lecroy about the 100ghz scope. We will se a review in the feature?

That was supposed to be a surprise!

[pickle9000]

Another great one, thanks.

[TiN]

Everyone can show xxxxx$ machine on youtube, but only Shahriar can make some very well thought experiments to actually show how that machine can pay for itself.
Really liked example with serial channel equalization, shown so even newbies can understand what is that all mean.
Keep up with great job 

[Wuerstchenhund]

With all the $$$$ gear on show, Shahriar is becoming the Top Gear of test equipment reviews.

Hey, no need to become offensive 

[Wuerstchenhund]

Also I have see the photos on twitter of you at lecroy about the 100ghz scope. We will se a review in the feature?

Rumor has it that we might see some reviews of LeCroy scopes from Shariar in the near future   

I just hope they don't just send him a WaveAce   

[vaualbus]

Also I have see the photos on twitter of you at lecroy about the 100ghz scope. We will se a review in the feature?

Rumor has it that we might see some reviews of LeCroy scopes from Shariar in the near future   

I just hope they don't just send him a WaveAce   

I wish to have them on eevblog we have very few lecroy review. Dave havenj't review a lecroy scope a part from the broken one that at the end cannot be repaired.

[idpromnut]

Having gone back and watched many of your videos now, I have to say that I really like how you incorporate experiments into your reviews! I think that is one of your key features that makes you different from the EEVBlog and Alan's channel. I find it amazing how with the three channels, you all each have a different approach to electronics, reviews and tutorials and all of them are top quality! Thank you very much for all the work you put into your videos Shariar!

[Wuerstchenhund]

I wish to have them on eevblog we have very few lecroy review. Dave havenj't review a lecroy scope a part from the broken one that at the end cannot be repaired.

I think it's unlikely we'll see them on EEVBlog, but frankly as long as it's reviewed by someone competent I don't care much who does the review.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Amazing video like always.Do you think that in the feature we will see more scope with 10bit ADC or for the rigol and other low end scopes we will remain to the 8bit ones?
Also I have see the photos on twitter of you at lecroy about the 100ghz scope. We will se a review in the feature?

Rigol doesn't make their own ASICS, but it is likely that higher resolution ADCs from TI or ADI will find their way into low-end scopes.

I'm not sure that will be the case  -  the vast majority of mainstream scope users don't need more resolution. Unless they can use the extra bits for additional functionality like spectrum analysis

[Wuerstchenhund]

Rigol doesn't make their own ASICS, but it is likely that higher resolution ADCs from TI or ADI will find their way into low-end scopes.

I'm not sure that will be the case  -  the vast majority of mainstream scope users don't need more resolution. Unless they can use the extra bits for additional functionality like spectrum analysis

The same was once said about storage scopes or digital scopes, or functionality like FFT.

At the moment it looks like the market is slowly moving to scopes with 10/12bit vertical resolution. Obviously it starts in the high end, but like other functionality it will eventually trickle down into entry level scopes.

[Hugoneus]

The advantage of higher resolution scopes is not just in spectral analysis. It is also in large dynamic range signals in time domain, large spikes, supply switching noise, interference analysis, etc. I would be surprised if 10/12-bit scopes would not become the standard in a few years. Making a 10-bit, 1GHz bandwidth ADC is now considered "easy" by state of the art ADC standards.