Ultrafast Waveforms
The Ultrafast group at NPL provides measurement facilities for characterising fast electrical and optical pulses as well as calibration services for fast pulse generators and high-bandwidth oscilloscopes.
Rapid advances in technology are driving demand for high-bandwidth instrumentation, systems, sources and circuits, leading to a consequent increase in calibration and traceability requirements. With over 20 years experience, the Ultrafast Measurements section provides measurement solutions in communications, broadcasting and many areas of electronics, optics and computing where there are demanding requirements. Examples of what we can offer include the characterisation of short electrical and optical pulses, new types of test instrumentation, and the calibration (PDF 956 KB) of fast electrical pulse generators and high-bandwidth oscilloscopes. Carried out by highly skilled staff members our services use fully traceable techniques.
Traceable Calibration Services
- Risetime and frequency calibration of real-time oscilloscopes above 1 GHz
- Phase and magnitude measurement of optical receivers over 10 GHz
- Measurement of impulse response for fast photodiodes and optical receivers
- Deconvolution and jitter analysis
- Frequency domain measurements up to 67 GHz
- Risetime of electrical power meters
Current Research Areas
- Femtosecond pulse shaping and measurement
- Optical Parametric Oscillators (OPO)
- Quantum coherent control
Special Facilities
NPL has several facilities including femtosecond electro-optic sampling systems, femtosecond photoconductive pulse generators, a range of commercially-available oscilloscopes and photodiodes, and numerous fast electrical and optoelectronic devices. Some of these facilities are available for supervised third party use.
Summary of Calibration Services traceable to UK National Standards
For more details, please contact Matthew Harper.
UKAS Accredited Services (to ISO 17025)
| Range | UKAS uncertainty Accreditation* | |
| Sampling oscilloscope risetime | 5 ps – 50 ps 50 ps – 1 ns |
1.3 ps 0.5% + 3 ps |
| Real-time oscilloscope risetime | 300 ps – 10 ns | 0.2% + 20 ps |
| Pulse generator risetime | 11 ps – 60 ps 60 ps –10 ns |
0.9 ps 0.5% + 1.4 ps |
| Pulse amplitude | 50 mV – 800 mV 800 mV – 1V |
0.3% 0.5% |
| Pulse settling | - | 0.05% |
| Pulse pre/over/undershoot | - | 0.1% |
*UKAS accredited uncertainties quoted for a probability of not less than 95%. These are the best normally achievable – actual values are dependent on the particular instrument and the shape of the instrument response waveform.
NPL Custom Pulse Services
| Instrument to be calibrated | Specification | Example measurement instrument |
| Pulse generator | < 11 ps | PSPL 4015D |
| Electrical oscilloscope sampling head | < 5 ps (> 70 GHz) | Agilent 86116C |
| Optical sampling modules | Various | Tektronix SD42 |
| Fast photodiodes | Various wavelengths and bandwidths | Picometrix PX-D7 |
| Real time digitising oscilloscopes | < 300 ps (> 1 GHz) | LeCroy Wavemaster 8600A |
Contact
Customer Services tel: +44 20 8943 6796
E-mail: rf_enquiries@npl.co.uk