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This is part of the ventureLAB Hardware Catalyst Lab Series highlighting the equipment available, their functions and impact as seen in the lab.
As Canada’s leading hardware and semiconductor lab and incubator, ventureLAB’s Hardware Catalyst Lab is home to state-of-the-art equipment that accelerates the development of advanced technologies. Among the most powerful tools available to innovators is the Keysight MSOV334A 33GHz Mixed-Signal Oscilloscope, a high-performance instrument enabling precise insights into high-speed designs and next-generation semiconductor breakthroughs.
The Keysight MSOV334A is an essential tool for semiconductor innovation, enabling high-precision measurements, in-depth analysis, and accelerated development in a rapidly evolving technological landscape. Numerous companies at ventureLAB have leveraged this equipment to refine and advance their designs.
Equipment key features include:
- 33 GHz analog bandwidth
- 4 Analog plus 16 digital channels
- 80 GSa/s sample rate and 2 Gpts of acquisition memory for longer signal trace capture
- Low noise (2.09 mVrms at 50 mV/div) and jitter measurement floor (100 fs)
How it Drives Semiconductor Innovation
The MSOV334A plays a crucial role in the semiconductor innovation process, offering a range of capabilities that enhance precision, efficiency, and compliance.
With ultra-high bandwidth, the oscilloscope allows engineers to analyze high-speed signals essential for modern semiconductor devices. This is critical for developing cutting-edge integrated circuits, high-speed digital designs, and RF components. Engineers can accurately measure signal integrity, rise times, and other critical parameters.
Additionally, the oscilloscope’s ability to analyze both analog and digital signals simultaneously is game-changing for modern semiconductor devices that integrate multiple signal types. This feature enables engineers to verify circuit performance, debug interoperability issues, and ensure seamless operation between analog and digital components.
Its real-time analysis capabilities empower engineers to observe complex signal interactions as they happen, significantly accelerating the innovation cycle. The MSOV334A also offers sophisticated triggering functionalities that help isolate specific events in digital communications, aiding in the debugging of intricate semiconductor designs. With integrated decoding for multiple protocols, engineers can streamline verification and validation of high-speed communication systems.
Who’s Using It?
Tenstorrent, a leader in AI and high-performance computing, leveraged the Keysight MSOV334A to evaluate and optimize the PCIe Gen5 interface of their latest advanced graphics processor. PCIe Gen5 is a a new standard of PCIe used to connect high-speed components like graphics cards, storage devices, and networking hardware to a computer’s motherboard.At an industry plug fest, Tenstorrent successfully passed PCIe Gen5 compliance certification, thanks to the oscilloscope’s precision capabilities. Their engineers utilized the MSOV334A’s advanced features to ensure compliance with PCIe specifications, optimizing performance and reliability. As Tenstorrent puts it, “the equipment support provided by ventureLAB is impressive.”
Learn more about the lab here
About ventureLAB
ventureLAB is a leading global founder community for hardware technology and enterprise software companies in Canada. Located at the heart of Ontario’s innovation corridor in York Region, ventureLAB is part of one of the biggest and most diverse tech communities in Canada. Our initiatives focused on raising capital, talent retention, commercializing technology and IP, and customer acquisition have enabled thousands of companies to create over 6,800 jobs and raise more than $420 million in investment capital. ventureLAB is powering hardtech founders to build and scale globally competitive ventures that advance Canada’s knowledge-based economy.
About Hardware Catalyst Initiative
ventureLAB’s Hardware Catalyst Initiative is Canada’s only lab and incubator for founders building hardware and semiconductor-focused products, enabling the creation of transformative technologies that will power our products of tomorrow — including healthcare technology, consumer electronics, telecommunications, smart energy, connected transportation, and more. Funded in part by the Government of Canada, through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), the Hardware Catalyst helps tech companies accelerate their time to market in a sector that normally incurs lengthy entry and scale times, enabling Canadian hardware and semiconductor companies to grow and scale locally, and compete globally.
