The IQScope launched by Southern Photonics is an optical complex modulation analyzer for fully characterizing the optical performance of modulators and transmitters. The proprietary hardware and software within the IQScope enable any appropriate equivalent-time oscilloscope to extract the relevant amplitude, phase and polarization information from complex modulation formats.
The analyzer can characterize any coherent modulation format, such as 16-QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) and QPSK (quadrature phase-shift keying) — including polarization multiplexed transmission formats such as dual-polarization QPSK — up to 800 Gb/s, using currently available equivalent-time oscilloscope modules.
The IQScope interfaces directly with all commonly used oscilloscopes such as the Agilent 86100C/D, the Tektronix DSA8300 and the LeCroy Wave Expert 100H. Its software runs on the host oscilloscope, providing seamless transition between the coherent modulation analysis tools and the oscilloscopes’ general-purpose functionality.
The software provides all the required tools for R&D analysis and production testing of transmitters such as error vector magnitude, in-phase/quadrature phase error, radio-frequency gain imbalance and skew.
The IQScope enables up to 2000 sample points per baud to be captured at high resolution and offers a detailed view of all the transitions between symbols, providing R&D engineers with deeper insight into how new devices and transmission formats operate at 100G and beyond.