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Keysight
N7020A Power Rail Probe
for Power Integrity Measurements
The Right Tool for the Right Job
Data Sheet
02 | Keysight | N7020A Power Rail Probe for Power Integrity Measurements - Data Sheet
The need for a specialized power integrity probe
Would you like to minimize oscilloscope and probe noise when measuring DC power
rails? Do you need more offset than is available in your oscilloscope so you can zoom-in
to view and analyze small signals on top of DC power supplies? Would you like to have
input impedance greater than 50 at DC so your oscilloscope doesn't load your DC
power rails? Do you need more bandwidth so you can track down transients on your DC
power supplies that can adversely affect your clock and data? If so, the N7020A power
rail probe is the right tool for the job.
Developed specifically to help engineers with precise DC power rail testing, the N7020A
power rail probe was designed to minimize noise and maximize the offset range of the
measurement system while providing high bandwidth and low target loading.
The challenge
The increased functionality, higher density, and higher frequency operation of many
modern electronic products has driven the need for lower supply voltages. It is common
in many designs today to have 3.3, 1.8, 1.5 and even 1.1V DC supplies--each of them
having tighter tolerances than in previous product generations.
Engineers need to zoom-in on power rails to look for transients, measure ripple, and ana-
lyze coupling. An oscilloscope often does not have enough offset to be able to shift the
DC power rail to the center of the screen for the required measurements. Placing a DC
blocking capacitor in the signal path eliminates the offset problem but also eliminates
relevant DC information such as DC supply compression or low frequency drift.
A low noise measurement solution is of paramount importance so it doesn't confuse
the noise of the probe and oscilloscope with the noise and ripple of the DC supply being
measured. Using probes (active or passive) that are higher than 1:1 attenuation can help
with the offset difficulty but will also decrease the signal-to-noise ratio and negatively
affect measurement accuracy. Using the oscilloscope's 50 input with a passive coaxial
cable offers a 1:1 attenuation ratio probing method but results in higher-than-desired DC
loading of the supply being measured and has the offset limitations mentioned earlier.
Ripple, noise, and transients riding on DC supplies are a major source of clock and date
jitter in digital systems. Dynamic loading of the DC supply by the processor, memory,
or similar items occurs at the clock frequency and can create high speed transients and
noise on the DC supply. Designers need high-bandwidth tools to evaluate and under-
stand high-speed noise and transients on their DC power rails.
Using the N7020A power rail probe, with 2 GHz bandwidth and 50 K DC resistive loading, to see the AC and
DC components of a DC power rail.
03 | Keysight | N7020A Power Rail Probe for Power Integrity Measurements - Data Sheet
Key probe characteristics
The N7020A power rail probe is a low noise, large offset range oscilloscope probe that
enables users to measure small signals riding on top of DC supplies.
Large offset range: +/-24V of probe offset. This enables users to center the signal on
screen while placing the oscilloscope at its maximum vertical sensitivity to zoom-in on
the signal.
Low noise: The N7020A power rail probe is a 1:1 attenuation ratio active probe. As a
general rule, the higher a probe's attenuation ratio, the nosier the signal will be on the
oscilloscope. The N7020A only increases the baseline noise of the oscilloscope it is
connected to by 10%.
Large input signal range: The N7020A power rail probes' +/-850 mV input signal range,
in addition to its large offset range, means that users can measure up to +/-850 mV
deviations of their DC supplies. This is very useful for measuring programmable supplies
like those used in microcontroller power saving modes.
Low DC loading: The N7020A power rail probe has 50 k input impedance at DC,
minimizing the probe's DC loading of the power rail.
The Keysight N7020A power rail probe for power
integrity measurements.
04 | Keysight | N7020A Power Rail Probe for Power Integrity Measurements - Data Sheet
Key measurements