Picotest

08/17/2026

https://lnkd.in/e7kAcwfK

Tony shows how to use SEPIA on a Tektronix 6 Series Oscilloscope to...

08/13/2026

A picohenry is a millionth of a millionth of a henry. You can't measure one directly — so how do you know it's there?

Steve Sandler opens with something deceptively simple: try to weigh a single feather. Set it on a lab balance and it won't sit still — air currents, static, even your breath move it more than it weighs. The thing you want to measure is smaller than everything disturbing it.

That's the whole game in extreme measurement, and it scales all the way down to the picohenry — roughly one micron of wire. Ignore it at DC and it's nothing. But V = L·di/dt: at a fast edge, that "nothing" becomes ~10 mV of noise on a sub-1V rail. At 1 GHz it's ~6.3 mΩ, blowing your milliohm target impedance.

So you reach for a precision component fixture, a VNA, careful high-frequency calibration and de-embedding. And here's the part that keeps me up at night:

You never actually measure the picohenry. You measure your fixture, model it, and subtract it — so the number on the screen is only as honest as that model.

👉 How far do you trust de-embedding before you stop believing the number? Where has it burned you?

(Carousel below — swipe through.)

08/11/2026

Do you know how our CTF works?
https://youtu.be/95PhuivwIeo?si=gdRvzUle20Dsb_QQ

Your PDN simulation is only as accurate as the component models beh...

08/10/2026

Steve Sandler joins Tektronix for "Ask the Experts: Solving Today's Toughest Power Integrity Questions."

Bring the measurement problem you're stuck on — PDN impedance, VRM stability, rail noise, transient response — and get it answered live by the panel.

TUES, August 25 · 10AM PDT. Registration link below.
https://tek.brandlive.com/Ask-the-Experts-Solving-Today-s-Toughest-Power-Integrity-Questions

07/31/2026

Turn the Keysight E5061B VNA you already own into a complete power integrity test bench.

One instrument. Six power integrity tests — each enabled by Picotest probes, injectors, and fixtures:

• Component testing & modeling — CTF
• PDN impedance — P2104A / P2102A
• VRM impedance — J2113A, J2102B
• PSRR — J2120A, J2121A, P2124A
• Stability, Bode — J2101A, J2110A
• NISM support — P2102A, P2105A, NISM software

See how it works → https://www.picotest.com/insights/keysight-e5061b-vna-gains-non-invasive-stability-measurements/

07/22/2026

Measuring loop stability usually means breaking the loop. It doesn't have to.

The Keysight E5061B ENA, paired with Picotest's P2102A 2-Port Probe and NISM, measures stability non-invasively — phase margin and effective-Q straight from the output impedance, nothing to cut or inject into the feedback path.

And stability is just one of six power-integrity tests one E5061B can run:

• Component testing & modeling • PDN impedance • VRM impedance • PSRR • Bode stability • NISM

One VNA you already own. Probes, injectors and fixtures from Picotest do the rest.

🔗 See how non-invasive stability works → picotest.com/insights/keysight-e5061b-vna-gains-non-invasive-stability-measurements/

07/07/2026

The best power integrity test equipment doesn't fall off the back of a truck — it comes from Picotest. Probes, signal injectors, and transient load steppers for engineers who take PDN validation seriously. No back alley required. Link in comments.

07/02/2026

AI at scale demands more than compute power — it demands cleaner, more reliable power delivery.

This article explores how embedded capacitance materials can help address power integrity challenges in advanced AI systems, supporting faster, denser, and more efficient designs.

Read more: https://www.picotest.com/insights/powering-ai-at-scale-with-embedded-capacitance-materials/

As AI, cloud computing, and data centers continue to scale, so do their power demands—and the complexity of the systems that support them. These next-generation architectures rely not only on advanced chips, but also on high-performance connectivity and advanced interconnect solutions that enable ...

06/16/2026

Can we borrow your brain? 🧠
We've built a tool to help you find the right test setup — based on what you're measuring (impedance, PSRR, stability, ripple/noise, TDR…) and the instruments you already have (Bode 100/500, a scope, another VNA).
We've tested it in-house, but you're the real experts. Give it a go and tell us: does it point you to the setup you'd actually reach for?
👉 https://www.picotest.com/find-your-test-setup/
It's made for a niche — power and signal integrity engineers — so your technical feedback genuinely shapes where this goes. Comment or DM, we're all ears.
— The Picotest Team

06/15/2026

Tony Ambrose from Tektronix previews SEPIA, Scope Embedded Power Integrity Analysis, a new measurement technique designed for today’s nonlinear, time-variant DC-DC converters on a Tektronix 6 Series Oscilloscope. Rather than relying on traditional frequency-domain Bode plots, SEPIA extracts phase margin, equivalent circuit models, and stability insight directly from a high-speed step load response.

This video gives a quick look into why step load response is superior to traditional Bode plots and shows how power integrity measurement is evolving.