Fully self-contained 56 Gb/s pattern generator is one sixth the size of other solutions By Jean-Pierre Joosting Microwave Engineering October 02, 2008 (08:52 AM EST)   Santa Rosa — The TG2P5A 39.6 to 56 Gb/s PRBS source from Centellax is a fully self-contained 56 Gb/s pattern generator designed to provide an excellent quality eye at a fraction of the price of current market solutions. This is made possible through comprehensive integration of the key building blocks into monolithic integrated circuits founded on SiGe technology. The performance generated from the 39.6 to 56 Gb/s PRBS Source is world class, with the typical EYE having 400 fs rms jitter, 400 mV of output swing and <9 ps rise time. This entire package is one-sixth the size of any other solution on the market, which allows users to position the source directly at the device-under-test regardless of the lab bench environment. The 56G PRBS Generator is designed to be used as the source for testing new 100G Ethernet applications designed at one-half data rate, or 56 Gbps. In conjunction with a high-speed digital communications analyzer it can be used to make eye and jitter measurements of 56 Gbps components such as modulator drivers, optical modulators, and MUX and DEMUX components. A datasheet is available. For further information visit www.centellax.com.