Rohde & Schwarz has announced comprehensive plans for DesignCon 2026, the premier high-speed communications and system design conference and exposition, taking place 24 to 26th February in Santa Clara, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. This year’s program for the conference reflects the commitment of Rohde & Schwarz to delivering technical expertise directly to the engineering community – through expert-led education, interactive demonstrations, and an exciting opportunity for one attendee to take home an MXO 3 oscilloscope. DesignCon brings together chip, board and systems design engineers to address signal integrity, power integrity and electromagnetic compatibility challenges.
MXO 3 oscilloscope giveaway: empowering engineers
As part of its commitment to empowering the engineering community, Rohde & Schwarz is giving away an MXO 3 oscilloscope at DesignCon 2026. Attendees visiting booth #949 can register for the chance to win an MXO 3, the latest generation of Rohde & Schwarz oscilloscopes featuring 12-bit ADC resolution, up to 4.5 million waveforms per second acquisition rate, and hardware-accelerated spectrum analysis. The winner will be announced Thursday, 26th February at 11:00 AM.
“We believe that access to world-class test equipment empowers engineers to push the boundaries of innovation,” said Michael Schnecker, Digital T&M Technologist at Rohde & Schwarz. “The MXO 3 giveaway represents our commitment to supporting the engineering community, giving one attendee the tools to take their signal integrity and power integrity work to the next level.”
Full-day technical workshop: learning from industry leaders
On Wednesday,25th February, Rohde & Schwarz will host a comprehensive workshop in collaboration with leading authorities from industry and academia. This year’s program features eight technical seminars offered free of cost to DesignCon attendees.
Workshop highlights include:
- “S-parameter Analysis with a Free Simulation Tool” – Prof. Eric Bogatin, author of 18 technical books on signal integrity and professor at University of Colorado Boulder, demonstrates advanced techniques for extracting insights from S-parameter measurements.
- “Isolated Probes – Are they really all that?” – Steve Sandler, founder of Picotest and internationally recognised power integrity expert, delivers a quantitative framework for probe selection in modern power integrity measurements.
- “ML-Driven PDN Design: From pre-layout synthesis to post-layout optimisation” – Prof. Chulsoon Hwang from Missouri S&T’s EMC Laboratory, recipient of 10+ Best Paper Awards from DesignCon and IEEE EMC+SIPI, explores how machine learning is transforming power distribution network design.
Additional sessions cover topics ranging from high-speed PCIe system design to quantitative VRM stability analysis using time-domain measurements.
Hands-on demonstrations: technical expertise in action
Visitors to booth #949 will experience live demonstrations showcasing real-world applications of Rohde & Schwarz test solutions. Featured demos include:
- Millimeter Wave PCB Probing – See how the R&S ZNA with frequency extension enables high-frequency S-parameter measurements on PCB structures for 5G, 6G, and advanced packaging applications.
- IEEE 802.3dj compliance testing – Experience a 48-channel VNA configuration using the R&S ZNA and R&S OSP switch platforms for next-generation 200Gb/s per lane Ethernet cable compliance testing.
- Load step response testing – Witness real-time PDN validation using the MXO 5 oscilloscope paired with Picotest’s load stepper technology for power integrity characterisation.
Rohde & Schwarz engineers will be on hand throughout the show to share their technical expertise and discuss solutions for attendees’ specific signal integrity, power integrity, and EMC challenges.
‘Are you a genius?’ challenge
Returning by popular demand, the interactive ‘Are you a genius?’ challenge invites attendees to test their engineering skills in EMI debugging and power rail probing. Participants will gain real-world experience working alongside Rohde & Schwarz experts, using the MXO 3 series oscilloscope with near-field probes to locate EMI sources on a demo board, and exploring power rail probing techniques with the R&S RT-ZPR20 power rail probe. Everyone who completes the challenge will take home an exclusive Rohde & Schwarz t-shirt.
Online access for global audience
For those unable to attend DesignCon 2026 in person, all technical seminars will be broadcast as webinars from April through June 2026. Video summaries of booth demonstrations will also be made available following the conclusion of the show. For live updates from DesignCon 2026 and webinar announcements, follow Rohde & Schwarz solutions for Electronic Design on LinkedIn.
