Automated eye opening measurement of an optical data link operating at 200 Mb/s.

To test optical data link transmitters and receivers at 200 Mb/s, a method was developed to automatically measure the eye opening of the device under test (DUT). The method consists of measuring the bit errors as a function of the delay between the system dock and the data stream returned from the DUT. This measurement yields a profile of bit errors vs. delay or a time domain error spectrum. From this profile the eye opening at any bit error rate can be determined. The value of the eye opening to the systems user is also discussed.