atSpeed Technologies

Services

The combination of its products and services allows a company of any size to take advantage of the capabilities offered by atSpeed. By choosing the proportions of products vs. services, any company can combine these resources to produce the highest performing designs achievable today.

• Seminars and training
• Component characterization
• Determination of equalization parameters
• EPD generation
• Equalization circuit board design and specification
• Full electrical characterization with report
• Other services

Seminars and training.

atSpeed offers seminars and training in measurement based design. Please write to info@atspeed.net for details.

Component characterization.

Up to two transmission channels in a single component are fixtured¹ and characterized in terms of S₂₁. The channel may be single-ended or differential and the component may be a cable a connector, a PC board, etc. The characterization is performed using TDT extraction, which computes the vector S₂₁ coefficient over approximately a 10 GHz bandwidth, provided that the loss remains under 40 dB over that range. The customer is responsible for providing the components and any relevant drawings or diagrams. Additional transmission channels on the same component can be characterized at a discounted rate.

Determination of equalization/preemphasis parameters.

The equalization parameters for a passive circuit that maximize the eye-area or eye-height of a signal propagated through a transmission channel are calculated. The transmission channel consists of linear components, connected in series, whose S-parameters^2,3 are known. The S-parameters can be supplied by the customer or determined as a service by atSpeed. Equalization circuits that are currently supported include RC, CRC and matched RLC. Combinations of discrete components can also be added to the channel.

EPD generation.

The eye pattern diagram is generated for a transmission channel consisting of one or more components connected in series. With the exception of elements that Oculus computes the S-parameters of internally (ideal filters, transmission lines, etc.) S-parameter^2,3 data for each of the elements must be provided by the customer or determined as a separate service by atSpeed. The cost of the EPD generation is dependant on the number of components. Possible characterizations include:

• Cable or connector alone.
• Connectorized cable (two connectors with cable).
• Equalized cable.
• Equalized, connectorized cable.
• Full backplane assembly, with/without cabling.

Equalization circuit board design and specification.

The components of an equalization circuit are generally mounted on a circuit board or chicklet that becomes an integral part of the cable connector. There is both a mechanical and an electronic/electromagnetic aspects to the design for this component. Both aspects are very connector specific and can be quoted only after the connector is selected and after both mechanical drawings and samples are provided to atSpeed Technologies.

Full electrical characterization with report.

A subassembly and its associated components are characterized either separately or as assembled. Equalization parameters and eye patterns for the chosen communication paths through the subassembly are computed for the designated data rates. The results of the equalization analysis and the eye pattern generation are summarized in a formal report.

Other services.

A range of other services can be quoted on request. Examples include full back plane design with/without cabling, determination of skew, reflection coefficients and cross talk.

1. For some, unusual components, conventional fixturing may be deemed inadequate. If this happens the customer is notified so that customized fixturing is developed jointly..
2. Full S-parameter data is only needed if the component is significantly reflective at the frequencies of interest. If it is not, S₂₁ data alone is sufficient. Short components, assembled in near proximity to each other, generally fall into the category that needs full S-arameters.
3. Equalization circuit board design and specifications can be provided either from data supplied by the customer or generated by atSpeed.