Sampler/Pulser IP Core Press Release

Novel circuit architecture permits arrays of matched, low-cost, sub-20 picosecond sampling heads or pulse generators on a monolithic IC

Orinda, CA, May 5, 2001

Furaxa, Inc. has successfully demonstrated a method for generating a string of ultra-fast (picosecond-range) electrical sampling apertures and pulses, requiring only a single transition of a control input signal. Based on the Libove Gate architecture (patent pending), the sampler/pulser IP core is suited to fabrication as a low-cost monolithic integrated circuit and produces faster, more stable, more reproducible, and more precisely shaped sampling apertures and pulses, with lower power usage and cost, than pre-existing circuit designs. The resulting combination of speed and reproducibility allows the integration of large numbers of virtually identical fast sampling apertures or pulse generators on a single IC, enabling single-shot capture of such a rapid sequence of samples that even a very fast, microwave frequency, electronic waveform may be precisely sampled at multiple points per cycle. Similarly, any arbitrary microwave waveform or pulse may be synthesized by using a string of fast pulses from a series of sequentially activated Libove Gate pulse generators.

Applications include use as a sub-component in ICs for instruments that require either an array of precisely matched ultra-fast time-gating elements (samplers) or ultra-fast pulse generators (pulsers). Examples of such systems include fast single-shot sampling oscilloscopes and time domain reflectometers (TDRs). While existing 20 GHz sampling oscilloscopes operate at similar analog bandwidths, they are only useful for repetitive waveforms, as they cannot perform the wideband single-shot storage that is enabled by the multiple Libove gate architecture.

For use as an Arbitrary Waveform Generator (AWG), multiple Libove cells, when configured as an array of matched pulsers, are especially suited to generating and detecting specially shaped microwave RF pulses for testing ultra wideband (UWB) receivers, RADAR systems and fiber-optic and copper-based communication channels.

Prior methods for generating pulses or apertures shorter than 20 picoseconds generally required the use of step-recovery diodes and Schottky diode pairs, which were difficult to manufacture on a monolithic circuit, required active skew compensation for matching, and were limited to a maximum of approximately 50 million pulses or samples per second, in contrast to the 500 million per second enabled by Furaxa’s Libove Gate IP core. For this reason, they required thousands of passes to capture a waveform, and they could only accurately display stable, repetitive waveforms.

The IP core is available for licensing to instrumentation manufacturers who base their instruments on GaAs or SiGe ICs. For a fixed fee, Furaxa will simulate the IP core on the customer's IC process, and will further assist in the layout and integration into the customer's product. Additional information on the technology is available at www.furaxa.com.