High-speed signal channels are essential in Teradyne’s high performance ATE systems. Base band signal delivery at 100 Gbps and higher data rate is unavoidable challenge Teradyne and its customers have to solve. To ensure high design quality and satisfactory design specifications, simulation and measurement correlation are critical. However, it is much harder to achieve a good correlation between simulation and measurement for any system with a speed over 100 Gbps.

In this work, we focus on the design of OLT(Optical Line Termination) device that needs 100 Gbps PAM4 and even higher signal delivery high-speed links board designs. To achieve this objective, critical issues affecting design specifications, simulation accuracy, measurement reliability, and correlation discrepancies are discussed. For the 100 Gbps board, design optimization by simulation takes majority time in the design process. Many details need to be investigated to achieve a collectively good performance. In the other hand, during the measurement stage, probe selections and calibration must be carefully planned. However, it was rarely discussed how to achieve the correlations between measurement and simulation in literatures. In this work, we will present our successful 100 Gbps benchmarks and critical concerns behind their simulation, optimization, and measurement correlations. All detailed factors such as simulation port setups, boundary definitions, hardware selections, calibration methods, measurement setups, and result expectations are included in the presentation. Great correlations for multiple channels in both frequency (VNA) and time domains (TDR) have been achieved. It serves as good references for challenging 100 Gbps or higher high-speed board designs. This work attracted high attentions and good feedback from some Teradyne’s new customers.