Datasheet
Application Note
www.tektronix.com/bench8
Figure 15. 74F74 D-Flip-Flop.
D Input
D Input
Q Output
Q Output
Clock
Clock
74F74
The MSO analog channels are connected to both LVPECL 
signals and the MSO is started again looking for small non-
conforming pulses. This time the MSO triggered on a 1.091 ns 
glitch and the MSO provides analog insight into both LVPECL 
signals as shown in Figure 14. Analog glitches occur at the 
same time that the rising edges occur on the other signal. 
Most of these analog glitches are below the LVPECL logic 
threshold, but some of these glitches cross the logic threshold 
and are seen as logic errors such as the glitch on the top 
waveform at the left edge of the display.
The MSO provides the significant advantage of capturing both 
the signal’s digital and analog characteristics and displaying 
them time correlated, providing insight into the signal integrity 
of the digital signals. The root cause of these glitches are rising 
edge crosstalk between the two LVPECL signals. The LVPECL 
rising edge transitions are driven harder and faster than the 
falling edges. As a result, the rising edges create significantly 
more crosstalk than the falling edges. There is no indication of 
falling edge crosstalk in this acquisition.
Non Monotonic Edges and 
Setup/Hold Violations
In this example, the TTL 74F74 D-Flip-Flop operation is 
verified. The D-Flip-Flop rising clock edge loads the D input 
into the Q output as shown in Figure 15. For example, the 
Q output is high if the D input is high at the time of the rising 
clock edge.
Figure 16 shows the MSO triggered on the rising edge of the 
clock which is the bottom waveform. The D-Flip-Flop data 
input is the middle waveform and the Q output is the top 
waveform. The digital channels have been labeled OUT, DATA 
and CLK to make it easy to identify each waveform.
Figure 16. D-Flip-Flop operation looks normal based on one acquisition. 
Figure 14. Rising edge crosstalk between two LVPECL signals causing glitches. 










