Sunday, April 30, 2017

Chosing a new oscilloscope

Since I will be doing development for our EGSE, I should try to get a good oscilloscope ordered that will meet my needs.

Basically, the choice is between Tektronix and Agilent. I tend to like Tektronix, other people despise them for some reason.

I need to have a 16 channel logic analyzer built in.

For Tektronix, that one criteria narrows down the series of scopes that I am interested in to just two, the MDO3000 series and the MDO4000 series.
The most basic MDO3000 option, the MDO3014 is a 100 MHz scope with a 16 channel logic analyzer with 121 ps resolution. http://www.tek.com/oscilloscope/mdo3000-mixed-domain-oscilloscope
It isn't that much more money to get a MDO3024 which is the same scope at 200 MHz with the same logic analyzer.http://www.tek.com/oscilloscope/mdo3000-mixed-domain-oscilloscope
The MDO4000 has scope resoutions up to 1 GHz which we probably don't need. However the bottom of the line MDO4024C is a 200 MHz scope with a 16 channel analyzer with a much nicer 61ps resolution: http://www.tek.com/oscilloscope/mdo4000c-mixed-domain-oscilloscope
Note that the logic analyzer probe set is model number P6616. Its specs say that it's good only up to 500 KHz and pulse widths of 1 ns, so hopefully the 61 ps resolution of the scope can still be met!http://www.tek.com/manual/p6616

Agilent, now Keysight, has a couple of compatible scopes. It is not immediately clear from their website though what the resoution of their logic analzyers are.
Their MSOX3014T is a 100 MHz scope with a 16 channel logic analyzer: http://www.keysight.com/en/pdx-x202181-pn-MSOX3014T/mixed-signal-oscilloscope-100-mhz-4-analog-plus-16-digital-channels
The is the same scope in 200 MHz. http://www.keysight.com/en/pdx-x202183-pn-MSOX3024T/mixed-signal-oscilloscope-200-mhz-4-analog-plus-16-digital-channels