Segmented Memory Acquisition for InfiniiVision Series Oscilloscopes Capture more signal detail with less memory using segmented memory acquisition

Data Sheet

Features:• Optimizedacquisitionmemory• Captureupto2,000successivewaveformsegments• Fastre-armtime• Downto10pstime-tagresolution• Segmentsincludeallanaloganddigitalchannelsofacquisition• Segmentsincludeserialbusdecoding

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If the signals that you need to capture haverelativelylongidletimesbetweenlow-duty-cyclepulsesorburstsofsignalactivity,thenthesegmentedmemory option for Agilent’s InfiniiVision Series oscilloscopes can optimizeyourscope’sacquisitionmemory,allowingyoutocapturemoreselectivesignaldetailswithlessmemory.Withsegmentedmemory,the scope’s acquisition memory (upto8Mpoints)isdividedintomultiple smaller memory segments. Thisenablesyourscopetocaptureupto2,000successivesingle-shotwaveformswithaveryfastre-armtime–without missing any important signal information.

After a segmented memory acquisition isperformed,youcaneasilyviewallcapturedwaveformsoverlaidinaninfinite-persistencedisplayand quickly scroll through each individualwaveformsegment.Andwithaminimum10pstime-taggingresolution,youwillknowtheprecisetimebetweeneachcapturedwaveformsegment. Common applications for this type of oscilloscope acquisition include high-energyphysicsmeasurements,laserpulsemeasurements,radarburstmeasurements,andpacketizedserialbusmeasurements.

Eveninapplicationsthatdon’tactually require segmented memory acquisitiontooptimizememory,usingsegmented memory acquisition on Agilent’s InfiniiVision oscilloscopes canenhancepost-analysisnavigationthroughlow-duty-cyclesignals,burstsignals,andseriallypacketizedsignals.And the Agilent InfiniiVision Series oscilloscopes are the only scopes intheindustrythatnotonlyprovidesegmented memory acquisitions simultaneously on all analog channels (up to four analog channels) and logic channels(upto16digitalchannels)ofacquisition,buttheyalsoaretheonlyscopesthatprovidehardware-basedserialdecodingonpacketizedserialdataforeachcapturedwaveformsegment.

Introduction

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High-Energy Physics and Laser Pulse Applications

Segmented memory acquisition in an oscilloscope is commonly used for capturing electrical pulses generatedbyhigh-energyphysics(HEP)experiments,suchascapturingandanalyzinglaserpulses.Withsegmentedmemoryacquisition,thescopeisabletocaptureeveryconsecutivelaserpulse(uptoamaximumof2,000pulses),evenifthepulses are widely separated.

Figure1showsthecaptureof300successivelaserpulseswithapulseseparation time of approximately 12µsandanapproximatepulsewidthof3.3ns.All300capturedpulsesaredisplayedintheinfinite-persistencegraycolor,whilethecurrentselectedsegment is shown in the channel’s assignedcolor(yellowforchannel1).Notethatthe300thcapturedpulseoccurredexactly3.62352380msafterthefirstcapturedpulse,asindicatedbythesegmenttime-tagshowninthelowerleft-handregionofthescope’sdisplay. With the scope sampling at 4GSa/s,capturingthisamountoftimewould require more than 14Megapointsofconventionalacquisition memory. If these laser pulseswereseparatedby12ms, theamountofconventionalacquisition memory to capture nearly 4 seconds of continuous acquisitiontimewouldbemorethan14Gigapoints.Unfortunately,thereare no oscilloscopes on the market todaythathavethismuchacquisitionmemory. But since segmented memory onlycapturesasmallandselectivesegment of time around each pulse while shutting down the scope’s digitizersduringsignalidletime,theAgilent InfiniiVision scopes can easily capture this much information using just 8 Megapoints of memory (7000Series).

Asimilarhigh-energyphysicsapplicationinvolvesthemeasurementof energy and pulse shapes of signals generatedfromsubatomicparticlesflying around an accelerator ring (particle physics). Assuming that sub-atomicparticleshavebeenslungarounda3-kmacceleratorringataspeed approaching the speed of light (299,792,458meters/s),electricalpulses generated at a single detector at one location along the 3 km ring wouldoccurapproximatelyevery 10µs.Withsegmentedmemory,youcaneasilycapture,compareandanalyzesuccessivepulsesgeneratedbythesubatomicparticleswithprecisetime-tagging.

Figure 1: Segmented memory acquisition captures 300 consecutive laser pulses for analysis.

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Radar and Sonar Burst Applications

Engineers often require segmented memory acquisition mode in an oscilloscope when they measure radar and/orsonarbursts.Figure2showsanexamplewherewecaptured725consecutive50-MHzRFburstsignalsusing an Agilent InfiniiVision scope’s segmented memory acquisition mode. Engineers often need to compare sent andreceivedsignalsandcomparesignal degradation from echo signals. ThesetypesofRFburstapplicationsalsorequireprecisetime-tagginginorder to accurately compute distances. Distanceandtimebetweenburstscanoftenbeverylong,forexample,whenyouareanalyzingsatellitecommunications. If a satellite is located100milesinspaceawayfromanEarthtransmitter/receiverstation,aradarechotime(morethan200milesroundtrip)wouldbeapproximately1.07ms.Usingthe50-MHzRFburstshowninFigure2,youcouldeasilycapture725consecutiveburstsseparatedby1.07msusingsegmentedmemory.Capturingthismuchtime(775ms)usingconventionaloscilloscopeacquisitionat1GSa/swouldrequirenearly1Gigapointsofacquisitionmemory. But with the segmented memory option in the Agilent InfiniiVisionSeries,thisscope can easily capture this amount of signal data.

Figure 2: Capturing consecutive RF bursts with precise time-tagging using segmented memory.

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Mixed-Signal and Serial Bus Applications

Serialbusmeasurementsareanotherapplication area where segmented memory acquisition is useful. You can optimizethenumberofpacketizedserial communication frames that canbecapturedconsecutivelybyselectivelyignoring(notdigitizing)unimportantidletimebetweenframes.Asmentionedearlier,theAgilentInfiniiVision Series oscilloscopes are the only scopes on the market today that not only can acquire segments of up to four analog channels of acquisition,butalsocancapturetime-correlatedsegmentsondigitalchannels of acquisition (using an MSOmodel),alongwithhardware-basedserialbusprotocoldecoding.The segmented memory option on the Agilent InfiniiVision Series oscilloscopesiscompatiblewithallofthefollowingserialbustriggeringanddecoding options:

• I2C/SPI•RS-232/UART•USB•CAN/LIN•I2S•MIL-STD1553/ARINC429•FlexRay

To illustrate how segmented memory acquisitioncanenhanceserialbusmeasurements,wewillexamineamixed-signalautomotiveCANbusmeasurementapplication.Figure3showsaCANbusmeasurementwiththescopesetuptotriggeroneverystart-of-frame(SOF)condition.Usingthis triggering condition with the segmented memory acquisition mode turnedon,thescopeeasilycaptures1,000consecutiveCANframesforatotalacquisitiontimeof2.4seconds.Afteracquiringthe1000segments/CANframes,wecaneasilyscrollthroughallframesindividuallytolookforanyanomaliesorerrors.Inaddition,we can easily make latency timing measurementsbetweenframesusingthesegmentedmemory’stime-tagging.

Figure 3: Capturing 1,000 consecutive decoded CAN frames using segmented memory.

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Figures4aand4bshowexamplesofcapturing1,000consecutiveremoteand data frames with the ID code of 07FHEX.Thiswasaccomplishedbysetting the trigger condition to trigger on either remote or data frames with this specific frame ID. Now we can easily measure the timing latency betweeneachremotetransferrequestframewithaframeIDof07FHEX and its associated data frame response with the same frame ID. In this measurementexample,thelatencybetweensegment4(remoteframe)andsegment5(dataframe)was4.821ms.Alsonotethatalthoughnotshown,thetime-tagonthelastcapturedsegment(segment1,000)wasapproximately9.5seconds.Capturing this much time using conventionaloscilloscopeacquisitionmemory at this sample rate would require16Megapointsofmemory.

Figure 4a: Remote frame 07FHEX captured as segment 4 has a time-tag of 32.3199 ms.

Mixed-Signal and Serial Bus Applications

Figure 4b: Data frame 07FHEX captured as segment 5 is time-tagged at 37.1359 ms indicating a latency of 4.816 ms.

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Mixed-Signal and Serial Bus Applications (continued)

Whilescrollingthroughthevarioussegments/frames,wecouldseethaterrors were occurring randomly. So the next step in this CAN measurement application was to capture and store only frames that contain errors. Todothis,wesetupthescope’striggering to trigger specifically on any occurrence of any "form error" or "flagged error frame" regardless of itsIDcode.Figure5showshowthesegmented memory acquisition mode captured500consecutiveerrorframeswithatotalcapturetime(time-tagofthesegment500)ofmorethan 50seconds.Capturingthismanyframes at this sample rate using conventionaloscilloscopememorywouldrequiremorethan100MBof acquisition memory. But with thesegmentedmemoryoption,ourInfiniiVision3000X-Seriesoscilloscopewasabletocapturemorethan 50secondsofselectivesignaldetailusing its 4 Megapoints of memory.

OncewehavecapturedconsecutiveCANerrorframes,wecaneasilydialthroughalloftheindividualframestodiscoverwhytheseerrorsmightbeoccurring.

Figure 5: Segmented memory captures 500 consecutive CAN frames over a 50-second time span.

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Performance Characteristics

Ordering Information

The segmented memory option is compatiblewithallAgilentInfiniiVisionSeries oscilloscopes. This option is availableasafactory-installedoptionif ordered as Option SGM along with a

specificoscilloscopemodel,orexistingInfiniiVision Series oscilloscope users canorderthisoptionasanafter-purchase product upgrade.

Segment source Analogchannels1and2(ontwo-channelDSOmodels) +Analogchannels3and4(onfour-channelsDSOmodels) +DigitalchannelsD0toD15(onMSOmodels) + Serial decode (on models with serial decode options)

Number of segments 1to2000(5000,6000,and7000Series)1to1000(3000and4000X-Series)1to250(2000X-Series)

Minimum segment size 500points(+Sin(x)/xreconstructedpointsonfastertimebasesettings)Re-arm time (minimum time between trigger events)

5000,6000,7000:6μs3000and4000X-Series:1μs2000X-Series:20μs

Time-tag resolution 10psor6digits(whicheverisgreater)

Model number― user installed

Option number― factory installed

Description

N5454A SGM Segmentedmemoryfor5000,6000,and7000SeriesoscilloscopesDSOX2SGM SGM Segmentedmemoryfor2000X-SeriesoscilloscopesDSOX3SGM SGM Segmentedmemoryfor3000X-SeriesoscilloscopesStandard N/A Segmentedmemoryfor4000X-Seriesoscilloscopes

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Related Agilent literature

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ProductWebsiteForthemostup-to-dateandcompleteapplicationandproductinformation,pleasevisitourproductWebsiteat:www.agilent.com/find/scopes

Publication title Publication type Publication numberInfiniiVision 2000 X-Series Oscilloscopes Data sheet 5990-6618ENInfiniiVision 3000 X-Series Oscilloscopes Data sheet 5990-6619ENInfiniiVision 4000 X-Series Oscilloscopes Data sheet 5991-1103ENInfiniiVision 7000B Series Oscilloscopes Data sheet 5990-4769ENOscilloscope Waveform Updates Rates Determines Probability of Capturing Elusive Events

Application note 5989-7885EN

Evaluating Oscilloscopes to Debug Mixed-Signal Designs Application note 5989-3702ENEvaluating Oscilloscope Bandwidths for your Applications Application note 5989-5733ENOscilloscope Sample Rates vs. Sampling Fidelity Application note 5989-5732ENEvaluating Oscilloscope Vertical Noise Characteristics Application note 5989-3020ENOscilloscope Segmented Memory for Serial Bus Applications Application note 5990-5817EN

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