Amplifiers & Drivers

Our amplifiers are designed to provide the best possible time domain response and are ideal for applications requiring broadband frequency response and high speed performance.

We offer a complete line of amplifiers including a 43 Gb/s Lithium Niobate Driver Amplifier with crossing point and output voltage control. We also offer a 12.5 Gb/s Lithium Niobate Driver Amplifier and a series of broadband Linear Amplifiers.

Attenuators

Picosecond offers attenuators with SMA connectors for 18 GHz applications, K™ connectors for 40 GHz applications, and V™ connectors for 60 GHz applications.

Our Model 5510 Attenuator family addresses a need that has been totally ignored by other microwave component manufacturers who specify their products in the frequency domain but ignore the time domain responses. For time domain measurements, it is important to also know the transient response of attenuators used in a test set-up.

Baluns & Transformers

We offer a variety of inverting transformers and differential pulse splitters (Baluns). Our Baluns transform an unbalanced 50ohm input into a balanced 100ohm output. These Baluns are made of passive components are are therefore bi-directional.

Picosecond's Baluns are an effective means for using single-ended test equipment (VNA's, pattern generators) for taking differential measurments.

Many serial data standards have modest differential s-parameter test requirements. For these serial data applications a pair of PSPL Baluns and a single-ended VNA provide a very cost effective measurement solution.

Bias Tees

Picosecond Pulse Labs Bias Tees are used to supply an active device like an amplifier, laser diode, photodiode, or optical modulator with a bias current or bias voltage while allowing high speed, ultra-broadband signals to pass through with minimum signal degradation. Our Bias Tees have low insertion loss, very broad frequency response, and exceptional time domain performance.

Comb Generators

Picosecond Pulse Labs' line of Low Phase Noise Comb (Harmonic) Generators are based on monolithic GaAs Non-Linear-Transmission-Line (NLTL) circuits and produce output harmonics with astoundingly low added phase noise. When compared with an SRD based comb generator, measured results show PSPL's LPN comb generators to produce harmonics with 15-20 dBc/Hz lower phase noise!

Models are available in a variety of package types (coaxial, drop-in, surface mount) for both high-volume and high-performance applications, including low phase noise frequency multipliers.

DC Blocks

Our DC Blocks are high performance ultra-broadband components used for isolating DC voltages while allowing data signals to pass through unaffected. The 5500 Series DC Blocks are extremely broadband coaxial blocking capacitors. Due to the coaxial construction, excellent microwave performance and transient response is achieved. Large capacitance values provide low frequency response down to the kHz range.

Samplers

Picosecond's high-speed samplers can be used in many different applications, including equivalent time sampling. PSPL currently offers a 25GHz bandwidth equivalent time sampler module as a standard product.

In addition, PSPL supplies sampler modules as OEM products to instrument and test system vendors.

ECL/PECL Terminators

Signals from ECL and PECL logic ICs are specified to be terminated into 50 Ω returned to VTT = -2.0V and VTT=+1.3V respectively. Most test instrumentation, including sampling oscilloscopes, have input impedances of 50 Ω returned to ground. This has caused problems for measuring ECL or PECL signals. Our 5620-Series of ECL/PECL Terminators solves this problem. They are DC biased 50 Ω attenuators that provide the proper 50 Ω termination impedance returned to VTT, while at the same time delivering an attenuated and level shifted output signal to 50 Ω ground based instrumentation. The output levels are safe to apply directly to sampling oscilloscopes and they are ideal for testing up to 4 Gb/s ECL/PECL logic.

Non-Linear-Transmission-Lines

The Models 7001 and 7003 are packaged Non-Linear-Transmission-Lines (NLTL) products that offer different combinations of edge compression and transition times. These NLTL's transform an input by compressing an edge by as much as 80 ps and produce an output with a transition time as low as 4 ps.

Applications for the NLTL's include signal generation for Ultra Wide Band (UWB) position sensing and communications, generation of ultra-fast signals for test and measurement applications, millimeter-wave frequency multiplication, and mixer Local Oscillator (LO) drive.

Impulse Forming Networks

Impulse Forming Networks (IFN) produce an impulse from a step function or pulse and create a monocycle from an impulse.

The output is essentially the derivative of the input signal. Refer to the transfer function related to the IFN.

Low-Pass Filters

Picosecond Pulse Labs designs low-pass (risetime) filters that produce very clean transient responses. Our filters are based on a proprietary, absorption design that has attenuation and group delay frequency responses that are similar to Bessel-Thomson (B-T) filters, but provide superior transient response.

We offer the most popular filters for GbE, FC and SONET data rates up to 40 Gb/s. Please contact us directly for details on our custom-built filters as non-standard frequencies can be built to order. Our filters are also available in surface mount packaging.

Power Dividers & Pick-Off Tees

Our Power Dividers are resistive tees that have excellent performance and frequency response from DC to as high as 50 GHz. Our Models 5331, 5333 & 5350 split the signal into two equal replicas of the input signal. Both outputs are 6 dB down from the input power.

We offer several versions of Pick-Off Tees. These components produce a small replica of a signal at a pick-off port, at ratios of 10, 14, or 20 dB down from the input signal level.

The output ratio in the table below refers to the power ratio of the pick-off port to the input signal, and the power ratio of the through-line to the input signal respectively.

Pulse Generators

Picosecond designs and manufactures the world's leading Step, Pulse, and Impulse Generators. The Model 4016 provides <5 ps falltime and our 10,000 series of pulse generators offer many unique capabilities.

Our Model 10,300B produces 50V pulses, 300 ps risetime, and adjustable duration from <1ns to 100ns. Our Model 10,050A produces 10V pulses with 45ps risetime and adjustable duration from 100ps to 10ns. Models 10,060A and 10,070A are enhanced versions of the 10,050A with additional capabilities. All pulse parameters, except rise/falltime, are fully programmable via the GPIB (IEEE-488) interface.

PSPL also offers accessories, extended warranties, and calibration service plans for our pulse generators. Slower risetimes can be obtained by externally attaching a risetime filter. Step waveforms can be converted to impulses by attaching one of our Impulse Forming Networks.

TDR/TDT Instruments

Picosecond offers two high-speed pulse sources specifically designed for TDR/TDT applications - The Model 4020 Single-ended Source Enhancement Module and the Model 4022 Differential Source Enhancement Module.

The ultra-fast pulse risetime of the 4020 and the 4022 provides a 2.5X-4X improvement over other commercially available TDR and TDT pulse sources.

One TDR application that benefits significantly from higher resolution is package substrate analysis.

As a complement to the Model 4020 and 4022, PSPL also offers the Model 4022-DAK TDR/T Probe Connector Adapter Kit and the Model 4022-DBK TDR/T Full Connector Adapter Kit.

Trigger Countdown

Our Model 5650 Trigger Countdown is a divide-by-N prescaler that extends the frequency range of sampling oscilloscopes and frequency counters to 16 GHz. It offers an extremely low timing jitter of only 0.8 ps rms. The Model 5650 is now available with division ratios of 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64.