The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 31, 2004
Filed:
Oct. 29, 2001
Richard A Nygaard, Jr., Colorado Springs, CO (US);
Agilent Technologies, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
An eye diagram analyzer equips each SUT data and clock signal input channel with individually variable delays in their respective paths. For a range of signal delay of n-many SUT clock cycles, the SUT clock signal delay might be set at about n/2. For each data channel there is specified a point in time relative to an instance of the delayed clock signal (data signal delay) and a voltage threshold. The specified combination (data signal delay, threshold and which channel) is a location on an eye diagram, although the trace may or may not ever go through that location. A counter counts the number of SUT clock cycles used as instances of the reference for the eye diagram, and another counter counts the number of times the specified combination of conditions was met (“hits”). After watching a specified combination for the requisite length of time or number of events, the number of SUT clock cycles involved and the associated number of hits are stored in memory using a data structure indexed by the components of the specified combination (data signal delay, threshold). Next, a new combination of data signal delay and threshold is specified and a measurement taken and recorded in the data structure. The process is repeated until all possible combinations within a stated range of data signal delay and threshold voltage (using specified resolution/step sizes for delay and voltage) have been investigated. As this process proceeds under the control of firmware within the logic analyzer, other firmware can be examining the data structure and generating a partial eye diagram visible on a display, and that will be complete soon after the measurement itself is finished.