The BERTScope ISI Board from SyntheSys Research provides an accurate method of introducing controlled amounts of inter-symbol interference for stress testing and general lab use where emulation and measurement of data transmitted through a backplane or other circuit board are required.
The new board is composed of nine differential pairs of traces of varying lengths. Choices of pairs with length from 2.42 inches to 40 inches allow the engineer to generate inter symbol interference for compliance testing to standards and emulate performance of back plane connections while overcoming the limitations of matched coaxial cable pairs when testing differential signals. The differential pair has been designed as a pair of striplines located in the same layer of the circuit board stack in order to track the mechanical performance of each other and become a reliable and transferable standard for engineers to compare the performance of devices at multiple manufacturer sites.
The ISI board can be used both single-ended and differentially to complement the duty cycle distortion of the BERTScope in generating high frequency deterministic jitter. It can be configured in several trace lengths in series to get more alternatives.