What functions does a Tektronix oscilloscope have?

An oscilloscope is an electronic measuring instrument with a wide range of uses. It can transform invisible electrical signals into visible images, making it easier for people to study the changing processes of various electrical phenomena. The oscilloscope uses a narrow electron beam composed of high-speed electrons to hit a screen coated with fluorescent material to produce tiny light spots (this is the working principle of a traditional analog oscilloscope). Under the action of the measured signal, the electron beam is like the tip of a pen, which can draw a curve of the instantaneous value of the measured signal on the screen. The oscilloscope can be used to observe the waveform curves of various signal amplitudes changing over time, and it can also be used to test various electrical quantities, such as voltage, current, frequency, phase difference, amplitude modulation, etc. Among them, Tektronix has a comprehensive series of digital oscilloscopes, basic oscilloscopes, mixed domain oscilloscopes and high-performance oscilloscopes. So what are the functions of Tektronix's oscilloscopes?

1. Stacked display viewing function

1. Real-time waveforms and key readings of multiple signals can be displayed simultaneously, and the result bar on the right can be hidden.

2. Provide a subversive new stacking display mode:

It automatically adds and removes additional horizontal waveform "slices" when creating or deleting displayed waveforms, eliminating the need for manual slice positioning. All waveforms appear separate from each other while still using the entire ADC range, rather than a fraction of it, for maximum viewing capabilities and measurement accuracy. The order of channels can be easily rearranged in stacked display mode by dragging and dropping channel and waveform markers in the Settings bar at the bottom of the display. Multiple groups of channels can also be superimposed inside a slice, simplifying visual comparison of signals. Ample viewing area is provided for plots, measurement result tables, bus decode tables, etc. You can easily resize and reposition various views to suit your application. The interaction method on the capacitive touch display is the same as that of mobile phones and tablets. Very practical and will not deviate from your personal usage habits.

3. Leading vertical resolution

At the heart of the 4, 5, and 6 Series MSOs are 12-bit analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) that provide 16 times the vertical resolution of traditional 8-bit ADCs. New lower-noise front-end amplifiers further improve the ability to resolve fine signal details. Signals of interest can be captured while minimizing the effects of unwanted noise when you need to capture high-amplitude signals while viewing smaller signal details.

2. Digital Phosphor Technology and FastAcq™ High-Speed ​​Waveform Capture

Gain deeper insight into the actual operation of your device, find and know where problems exist. Its fast waveform capture rate (>500,000 waveforms/second) increases the probability of viewing common infrequent problems in digital systems, such as runt pulses, glitches, timing problems, etc. To further enhance the ability to view infrequent events, brightness levels indicate how often infrequent transient signals occur relative to normal signal characteristics. Once you have found the problem waveform, you can use the Trigger function to define a trigger, which can speed up debugging and analysis. Scanning all waveform acquisitions and triggering only the most important signal events through the Measure function, Visual Trigger can save hours of data acquisition time that would otherwise be captured and manually searched. You can find critical events and complete debugging and analysis work in seconds or minutes. Visual Trigger can even be used on multiple channels, further used to debug and troubleshoot complex system failures.

3. Search and waveform navigation functions

Have you ever experienced how time-consuming it can be to find the event you need in a long waveform record? With today’s record lengths containing millions of data points, locating the event can mean scrolling through thousands of screens of signal activity. Finding the signal you need can be time-consuming and laborious, and can be a real headache.

The 4, 5, and 6 Series MSOs offer the industry’s most comprehensive search and waveform navigation capabilities with the new Wave Inspector® control. Waveform navigation lets you move from one end of a record to the other in seconds. Or you can use intuitive drag and drop and zoom gestures on the display to examine areas of interest in long records.

The search function automatically searches through long acquisitions for user-defined events. All event occurrences are highlighted with search marks, and you can easily navigate using the Previous (←) and Next (→) buttons on the front panel or the search mark on the display. You can also use the Min and Max buttons on the search mark to jump between the minimum and maximum values ​​of the search results. I personally think it can reduce a lot of workload and improve work efficiency.

Optional serial protocol triggering and analysis

The 4, 5, and 6 Series MSOs provide a robust set of tools for measuring the most commonly used serial buses in embedded designs, including I2C, SPI, I3C, RS-232/422/485/UART, SPMI, CAN, CAN FD, LIN, FlexRay, SENT, USB LS/FS/HS, Ethernet 10/100, Audio (I2S/LJ/RJ/TDM), MILSTD-1553, and ARINC 429.

The serial protocol search function searches through the serial packet acquisition data to find packets containing specific content that you specify. Each location where the event occurs is highlighted with a search mark. Simply press the Previous (←) and Next (→) buttons in the Search mark on the front panel or in the results bar to quickly move between marks.

5. Spectrum View Function

Viewing one or more signals in the frequency domain often makes it easier to debug problems. Tektronix patented technology allows simultaneous observation of both a time domain view and a frequency domain view of the input signal, with independent acquisition settings for each domain. The spectrum view function provides both outstanding ease of use and optimized views in both domains compared to traditional FFT functions. The spectrum time sets the threshold for the time range over which the FFT is calculated. It is represented by a small grid rectangle in the time domain view and can be positioned to be time-correlated with the time domain waveform. It is particularly useful for mixed domain analysis. Up to 11 automatic peak markers provide frequency and amplitude values ​​for each peak. The Reference marker is always the highest peak displayed and is shown in red.

6. Optional power analysis function

With the optional power analysis function, power quality, input capacitance, inrush current, harmonics, switching loss, safe operating area (SOA), modulation, ripple, efficiency, amplitude and timing measurements, slew rate (dv/dt and di/dt) can be analyzed quickly and repeatably. Measurement automation supports one-button touch to optimize measurement quality and repeatability without the need for an external PC or complex software setup.

7. Jitter Analysis Function

The 5 and 6 Series MSOs seamlessly integrate the DPOJET Essentials jitter and eye diagram analysis software package, which expands the oscilloscope's capabilities and allows you to obtain measurement data on adjacent clock and data cycles in a single real-time acquisition. It can measure key jitter and timing analysis parameters, such as time interval error and phase noise, to help identify possible system timing problems. Analysis tools such as time trend graphs and histograms can quickly show how the measurement results change over time, and spectrum analysis can quickly display the exact frequency and amplitude of jitter sources and modulation sources. Additional jitter analysis capabilities can be added by adding the "Jitter Analysis Option" to better characterize device performance. 31 new measurement functions provide comprehensive jitter and eye diagram analysis and jitter separation algorithms to discover signal integrity problems and related sources of problems in today's high-speed serial, digital and communication system designs. Option 5-DJA also provides eye diagram mask testing for automatic pass/fail testing.

8. Visual Trigger – Quickly Find the Signal of Interest

Finding the right cycle for a complex bus can take hours to collect and sort through thousands of acquisitions to find the event of interest. Speed ​​up debugging and analysis by defining triggers to isolate the desired event. You can create an unlimited number of regions using a mouse or touch screen, and specify the desired trigger behavior using a variety of shapes (triangle, rectangle, hexagon, or trapezoid). Visual Trigger saves hours of data acquisition time by triggering only on the most important signal events. You can find the critical event and complete your debugging and analysis work in seconds or minutes. Visual Trigger can even be used on multiple channels, further enabling debugging and troubleshooting of complex system failures.

9. Digital Voltmeter (DVM) and Trigger Frequency Counter

The 4, 5, and 6 Series MSOs have an integrated 4-digit digital voltmeter (DVM) and a trigger frequency counter. Any analog input can be used as a source for the voltmeter, using the same probes as a general purpose oscilloscope. The counter gives a very accurate readout of the frequency of the triggered event. The digital voltmeter and trigger frequency counter are included at no charge and are activated when the product is registered.

10.Consistency Test

One area of ​​focus for embedded designers is testing the consistency of various embedded systems and interface technologies, especially for automotive Ethernet communications and USB high-speed serial communications.

Tektronix has developed oscilloscope-based compliance test applications that not only focus on providing pass/fail results, but also provide deeper understanding of the reasons for test failures, providing a variety of related measurement tools, such as jitter and timing analysis, to debug designs that fail the test. These automated compliance tests can give you the following benefits: