December 8, 2010 – Tektronix announced the MSO/DPO5000 Series Oscilloscopes and TPP1000 and TPP0500 high-bandwidth and low capacitance passive voltage probes. Taken together, the instruments and probes give embedded systems design engineers analysis tools for complex component and system-level debug and validation tasks, all at highly competitive price points.Oscilloscope models range from 350 MHz to 2 GHz are the single most popular segment for oscilloscopes and used to develop products for a broad range of industries and applications.
Across the board, consumer and industrial products are becoming more intelligent with more advanced embedded electronics that include many components connected by chip-to-chip buses, wired and wireless network connections, complex energy management schemes, image displays and sophisticated user interfaces.
Oscilloscope Platform
The MSO/DPO5000 Series incorporates many of the most popular features from Tektronix oscilloscopes and makes them available at a starting price of just $11,400. Features include FastAcq with a >250,000 wfm/s maximum waveform capture rate to discover elusive problems, FastFrame segmented memory acquisition and long record length to capture long time periods at high resolution, extensive built-in tools for in-depth analysis of complex designs, and a Windows-based user interface for easy networking and intuitive operation. The series features eight models ranging from 350 MHz of analog bandwidth and 5 GS/s sample rates to 2 GHz and 10 GS/s for higher-end applications. Record length ranges from 12.5M up to 250M for in-depth analysis and debug.
Each model has 4 analog channels. The MSO models also offer 16 digital channels and built-in parallel bus trigger and decode functionality. In addition, the DPO models are field upgradeable to MSO models should customers need that capability in the future.The MSO/DPO5000 Series offers critical tools for every stage of debug. DPX technology with FastAcq enables engineers to quickly see problems in their signal with one of the industry’s fastest acquisition rates up to 2 GHz, then use over 350 trigger combinations to capture that event the first time.
Extensive triggers for serial and parallel bus content enable fast validation of bus operation and make it possible for engineers to quickly track down system-level problems in embedded systems. Providing industry best waveform navigation, the built-in Wave Inspector® search capability can automatically look through an entire acquisition of up to 250Mpoints to find user-specified events and mark every occurrence for fast navigation to problem areas.
Over 50 automated measurements, plus advanced waveform math, histograms, statistics and other built-in analysis tools are available to analyze the signal and determine root cause of a problem or validate operation of the design.To help troubleshoot system-level interactions in complex embedded systems, all 16 digital channels of the MSO5000 Series, are fully integrated into the oscilloscope, allowing engineers to trigger across all input channels, automatically time correlating all analog, digital, and serial/parallel bus signals. Providing the industry’s best digital timing resolution in this class of oscilloscope, MagniVu ultra high resolution acquisition mode acquires up to 10,000 points at up to 16.5 GS/s (60.6ps resolution).
MagniVu is essential for making accurate timing measurements for setup and hold, clock delay, signal skew, and glitch characterization.Using the MSO/DPO5000 Series, with optional support for automated trigger and decode of I2C, SPI, RS-232 and USB 2.0 serial buses, engineers can focus on solving problems and not on manually decoding serial protocols. Optional analysis support for jitter and eye pattern analysis, limit and mask testing, serial compliance tests, power measurements, and DDR memory, among others further enable engineers to use one instrument for a wide range of applications. The portable package means the instruments can be used anywhere from the bench to the factory floor as needed and being a height of 5 rack units makes it the ideal tool for ATE environments as well.
High-Speed Passive Probes Minimize Capacitive Loading
The TPP1000 and TPP0500 passive voltage probes deliver the benefits of passive probes – high input dynamic range, robust mechanical design and lower cost – with performance similar to an active probe. These high-impedance (10 MΩ input resistance) passive voltage probes limit the effect on circuits with capacitive loading of just 3.9 pF at the probe tip, a major breakthrough in passive probe technology. This represents a significant improvement compared to competitive passive voltage probes that have at least 9.5 pF input capacitance.
The TPP1000 passive probes also deliver 1 GHz of bandwidth. Until now, high-impedance passive probes offered a maximum of 500 MHz bandwidth. With twice the bandwidth and half the capacitive loading, the TPP Series probes deliver more accurate signal capture. Included standard with every MSO/DPO5000 and MSO/DPO4000B Series model (see below), the TPP probes add significant value at no additional charge.
