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The CT100 datasheet also quotes a 250-kS/s maximum sampling rate that
can generate up to 500 complete TDR frames per second. For cables
shorter than 100 meters, the total step transit time is less than 1 µs. The
time between 250-kS/s samples is 4 µs. This means that for relatively
short cables the instrument can launch steps and acquire reflections at a
250-kS/s rate, developing complete 500-point TDR displays at a 500-Hz
rate.
This is only practical if each reflected signal is nearly identical during the
time required to build a frame. Otherwise, the ETS image will not
correspond to the actual device characteristics. The total transit time for
very long cables limits the TDR frame rate that can be achieved.
The shape and speed of the step edge are critical in a TDR. Distortion
ahead of or following the rising edge causes reflections that appear to
come from nonexistent faults in the wrong places. The speed of the edge
determines the spatial resolution. The closest two faults can be in time
and still remain distinguishable is
It is possible to work with rise times as short as 10 ps, but the faster the
edge, the more important the cabling and connectors become to the
overall system performance. As a guide, a rising edge contains
frequencies as high as 70% of the inverse of the rise time. As a result, you
are cabling 70-GHz components when applying a 10-ps edge. Obviously,
poor-quality cables or connectors will degrade the edge rate and perhaps
cause aberrations as well.
A Tektronix application note explains that you may not want to examine
your PCB traces or cabling using the fastest possible TDR edge. Impedance
variations no doubt will exist and cause aberrations in the reflected pulse,
but the real signals carried by the traces or cables may not be affected by
them. For example, anomalies extending over a cable length equivalent to
a few hundred picoseconds won’t have much effect on the 1-ns rise time
typical of an ECL logic gate output.1
At these speeds, the effect of the 50-GHz bandwidth sampling head cannot
be ignored because its 9-ps rise time significantly interacts with the 15-ps
edge. Agilent deconvolves the measured result to remove this effect as
Distance-to-Fault Is Spelled TDR or VNA
A frequency band from DC to 200 MHz is used for one test, and a separate
configuration with the same 200-MHz band but positioned between 1,700
and 1,900 MHz is used for a contrasting test. The IFFT performed on both
sets of data has an 8-µs maximum alias-free time corresponding to a 125-
kHz frequency increment. A total of 1,600 frequency measurements is
required.
For the baseband case, the time interval is equal to 1/(2 x 200) µs or 2.5
ns, and the resulting time-domain waveform is shown as the blue trace in
Figure 1. The pass-band configuration has a highest frequency of 1,900
MHz, which corresponds to a time interval of 1/(2 x 1,900) µs or 263 ps. If
the frequency increment remains at 125 kHz, the time span still is 8 µs,
but 15,200 frequency points now are needed.
frequency test] sees further into the cable due to the lower frequency
content where the medium has lower loss.”3
The paper describes the effects of the types of windowing built into the
Site Master Series of hand-held cable and antenna analyzers. Similar
considerations apply to the recently introduced VNA Master™ and LMR
Master™. “By displaying the narrowest peak, the rectangular windowing is
able to display more details for a given distance resolution, but it also
displays the most side lobes for any given peak. The [nominal-, low-, and
minimum-side lobe] windowing filters out some or all of the side lobes but
at the expense of widening the peak’s width....”5
having to ship them back to the lab. Mr. Bronks concluded, “A VNA may
still be used at the design stage to give the most accurate possible results
but is too slow and expensive for the production line. TDR/TDT is the most
economical way to test mass-produced components.”
It’s helpful to remember that neither a TDR nor a VNA actually determines
distance to a fault but can only measure time. The accuracy with which a
cable’s propagation speed is known determines how well time can be
related to distance.
There is general agreement that a VNA is more accurate than a TDR and
that a TDR is better suited to lower frequencies and a VNA to higher ones.
Nevertheless, even within these areas there can be complicating
implications.
References
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INFORMATION
Agilent Technologies 86100C/D Infiniium DCA Click here
Anritsu VNA Master Click here
LeCroy SPARQ Click here
Mohr and Associates CT100 TDR Click here
National Instruments PXIe-5630 VNA Click here
Picosecond Pulse Labs 4005 Pulse Generator Click here
Pico Technology PicoScope 9211A TDR/TDT Click here
Tektronix 80E10 Sampling Head Click here