Optical Sampling Oscilloscopes—PSO-100 Series

• High-speed transceiver compliance testing
• Line card and system design and characterization
• New modulation scheme research

• 500 GHz bandwidth
• Bit-rate and modulation format independent
• No trigger needed
• Polarization independent
• Ultra-low timing jitter: < 50 fs

Optical sampling. Unmatched performance.

With bandwidth demand growing exponentially worldwide, the transmission rates of optical networks are increasing to 40 Gbit/s and, in the near future, to 100 Gbit/s. Thanks to advanced modulation schemes, ultra-high network speeds can be achieved using existing DWDM channel spacing, while maintaining resilience to chromatic and polarization dispersion phenomena. Full characterization of this ultra-high-speed encoding represents a significant challenge. This is where EXFO’s PSO-100 Series comes in.

Based on a unique optical sampling approach, the PSO-101 and PSO-102 Optical Sampling Oscilloscopes eliminate almost all the limitations typically found in electrical sampling oscilloscopes. To do so, narrow sampling pulses open a sampling gate that generates a time-stretched version of the measured signal. The optical samples are then converted to electrical signals, which can be easily detected by low-speed electronics and digitally processed.

Distortion-Free Characterization of Signals at 40 Gbit/s, 100 Gbit/s and Beyond

The PSO-100 Series has a 500 GHz bandwidth allowing accurate measurement of rise/fall time, jitter, duty cycle distortion, mask hits, etc.—even with more complex modulation schemes such as CSRZ-DPSK.

No Need for an External Clock

The unique software-based clock recovery technique of the PSO-100 Series enables trigger-free and easy-to-use waveform visualization and analysis. If the optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) of the input signal is greater than 20 dB, you simply have to enter the transmission bit rate (within ±8 MHz) for perfect synchronization without requiring an external clock.

An optional external clock input is available should you have to synchronize on noisy signals or low duty cycle return-to-zero (RZ) signals, get accurate clock jitter measurement, or enable time-stamping of optical samples. Any sub-rate of the input signal can be used as the synchronization clock.

Bit-Rate and Modulation-Scheme Independent

The unique design of EXFO’s optical sampling oscilloscopes ensures a universal future-proof solution. Since the PSO-100 Series is an all-optical instrument, no bit-rate-dependent hardware is needed. The same oscilloscope can be used for any bit rate, up to 640 Gbit/s: just select the single-channel or the dual-channel version based on modulation schemes needed. Furthermore, both channels of the PSO-102 can be used independently or in differential mode for DPSK, DQPSK and D8PSK.

All Complex Applications Covered

DxPSK Measurements

To perform DPSK, DQPSK or D8PSK characterization, simply add a demodulator to your PSO-102.

Ultra-Long Haul and Submarine Circulating Loops

The PSO-100 Series also offers an optional Gated mode, which eliminates the need to manage long and expensive fiber spools to simulate links that can be thousands of kilometers long. You just have to use a short fiber spool and configure your test set-up as shown below to perform accurate measurements after the required number of loops in order to match the simulated link.