Anritsu Corporation has introduced a receiver test solution that supports the latest USB4® version 2.01 (USB v2) communication standard with 80 Gbit/s data transmission speed achieved by enhancing the functionality of the signal quality analyser-R MP1900A. Anritsu is contributing to the growth of USB4 v2 because this solution enables evaluation of USB devices that transfer large amounts of data such as HD video.
Development background
Increasing demand for high-capacity transmission of 4K/8K HD video and high-speed communication between AI-based IoT devices requires faster data transfer speeds. Faster USB communication has become necessary to support communication between smartphones and tablet PCs 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 the display or storage drive via a USB Type-C® cable2 is smoother.
The higher Baud3 rate and use of PAM34 modulation may incur issues such as reduced communication speed and degraded communication quality because of the high-frequency noise and jitter generated during USB communication. Therefore, USB4 v2 receiver evaluations need higher quality signals than the USB device data transmission standard.
The pattern generator is also required to simulate and evaluate bad communication quality conditions by adding noise and jitter to high-quality signals.
Signal quality analyser-R MP1900A
The MP1900A is a high-performance BERT5, which supports receiver testing of high-speed computing and data communications interfaces such as USB, PCIe, Thunderbolt and 400 GbE/800 GbE.
The existing MP1900A, which supports USB 3.2 and USB4 v1 receiver tests, 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 due to its low jitter and high-quality waveform performance. It also supports the receiver frequency variation training test added to the USB4 v2 compliance test specification to evaluate the training function and establish stable communication conditions during USB connection.
Technical terms
1 USB4® Version 2.0: The universal serial bus (USB) communication standard published in September 2022 – a registered trademark of the USB Implementers Forum.
2 USB Type-C®: A registered trademark of the USB Implementers Forum.
3 Baud: The number of modulation cycles per unit time.
4 PAM3: Abbreviation for pulse amplitude modulation 3 – a signalling method using three voltage levels.
5 BERT: Abbreviation for bit error rate tester – an instrument for measuring the error rate of digital signals.
