To provide cost-effective optical transceiver test up to 8.5 Gbps and beyond, Agilent Technologies Inc. has released four next-generation PXIT modules for optical transceiver manufacturing. The PXIT family, offering both a combined bit error ratio tester (BERT) and digital communication analyzer (DCA), now provides double the bit-rate coverage and improved performance.

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The flexible modular platform allows optical transceiver manufacturers to combine key instruments needed to perform required measurements -- in one mainframe via the same interface, said the manufacturer. This helps reduce the cost of test and increase production throughput, added Agilent.

The four new PXIT modules include:

• The N2100B PXIT 8.5 Gbps digital communications analyzer-- a 4-slot module that allows customers to perform accurate eye-diagram analysis to characterize the quality of transmitters from 1 Gbps to 8.5 Gbps. It doubles the bit-rate coverage of the DCA and the number of possible filters to choose from.
• The N2101B PXIT 10.7 Gbps bit error ratio tester-- a 3-slot module with a high-accuracy clock source, data-pattern generator and error detector that allows for automatic BER analysis to characterize the quality of devices. The N2101B has more than doubled the upper line rate performance (10.7 Gbps) and the number of supported internal lines rates, as well as a lower minimum line rate (155 Mbps).
• The N2102B PXIT 11.1 Gbps pattern generator-- a 2-slot module capable of generating multiple patterns. It enables complete coverage from 622 Mbps to 11.1 Gbps with improved jitter and transition times.
• The N2099A PXIT synthesizer-- a 2-slot module that covers a 2 GHz tuning range and is available at a number of center frequencies: 5.25 GHz, 9.4 GHz and 10.5 GHz. The N2099A is a suitable clock source for the N2101B and N2102B modules when an external clock is required.

Available now, the N2100B module starts at $27,000, and N2101B at $35,000. Likewise, the starting price for N2102B is $17,500 and $8,000 for N2099A.