The growing demand for high-capacity 4K/8K HD video transmission and high-speed communication between AI-based IoT devices requires faster data transfer speeds. Faster USB communication has become essential to support communication between smartphones, tablets, and peripheral devices. The latest USB4 v2 data transfer speed is twice as fast as the previous USB4 v1. Therefore, high-speed video transfer to a display or storage drive via a USB Type-C® cable is smoother.
The higher baud rate*3 and the use of PAM modulation*4 can lead to problems such as reduced communication speed and degraded communication quality due to high-frequency noise and fluctuations generated during USB communication. Therefore, testing the USB4v2 receiver requires higher quality signals than those used by the standard USB device data transmission.
The pattern generator is also needed to simulate and evaluate poor communication quality conditions by adding noise and jitter to high-quality signals.
The MP1900A is a high-performance BERT*5 that supports high-speed data communication and computer interface reception testing, such as USB, PCIe, Thunderbolt, and 400 GbE/800 GbE.
The current MP1900A, which supports USB 3.2 and USB4 v1 receiver testing, can be upgraded to USB4 v2 by adding the new option and PPG module.
The PAM3 output signal from this module can be used for reliable receiver testing thanks to its low jitter and high-quality waveform performance. It also supports receiver frequency variation training, added to the USB4 v2 conformance test specification, to evaluate the training function and establish stable communication conditions during USB connections.
Technical Terms
*1 USB4® Version 2.0 - USB (Universal Serial Bus) communication standard released in September 2022. USB4® is a registered trademark of the USB Implementers Forum.
*2 USB Type-C® - USB Type-C® is a registered trademark of the USB Implementers Forum.
*3 Baud - Unit representing the number of modulation cycles per unit of time.
*4 PAM3 - Abbreviation for Pulse Amplitude Modulation 3, a signaling method that uses three voltage levels.
*5 BERT - Abbreviation for Bit Error Rate Tester. Instrument for measuring the error rate of digital signals.
