Tektronix debuts mixed-domain oscilloscope

MDO4000 combines scope and spectrum-analyzer functionality in a single instrument to support time-correlated analog, digital, and RF measurements.

Rick Nelson, Editorial Director -- Test & Measurement World, 8/30/2011 7:48:42 AM

Tektronix has introduced what it calls a mixed domain oscilloscope (MDO), which combines the functionality of an oscilloscope and a spectrum analyzer in a single instrument. The new MDO4000 Series gives engineers the ability to capture time-correlated analog, digital, and RF signals to help them solve complicated design issues.

Speaking at a prelaunch briefing in June, Roy Siegel, GM of oscilloscopes at Tektronix, said that more than 60% of oscilloscope users also use a spectrum analyzer to troubleshoot embedded system designs with integrated wireless functionality, requiring them to work in both the time and frequency domain. Putting the spectrum analyzer within the oscilloscope, he said, supports cross correlation to enable engineers to determine what time-domain events cause frequency-domain anomalies. Siegel said the integrated instrument can help save days or even weeks of debug time.

Specifically, the MDO4000 allows users to capture time-correlated analog, digital, and RF signals across four analog, 16 digital, and 1 RF channel.  The RF input frequency range extends up to 6 GHz and provides a capture bandwidth of 1 GHz or better at all center frequencies.  Users can see up to four decoded serial and/or parallel buses at one time on the same display.  Due to this time correlation between domains, engineers can now make accurate timing measurements to understand delays and latencies between command and control events in their design and changes in the RF spectrum. Users can use the instrument, for example, to view the spectrum as a VCO/PLL turns on or measure the transition characteristics of a frequency hopping RF signal. In addition, they can find the source of intermittent, device-state-dependant EMI noise.

The MDO4000 allows designers to see the RF spectrum of a signal at any point in time within a long acquisition to see how the spectrum changes over time or with device state.  By moving the patent-pending Spectrum Time window throughout the time-domain acquisition, designers can see the RF spectrum for any point in their acquisition while simultaneously seeing their analog, digital, and/or decoded buses at the same point in time.

Similarly, RF time domain traces are used to show how the amplitude, frequency, or phase of the RF input signal changes relative to time, helping to characterize frequency hop transitions, settling times, and RF event timing relative to other system components and activities. The RF time domain traces are shown in the same window as the analog, digital, and serial/parallel bus decoded waveforms.

In addition to the standard RF power level trigger, an optional module (MDO4TRIG) allows additional trigger types to use the RF power level as a source, enabling customers to further isolate an RF event of interest.  Users can trigger on a specific pulse width, or look for a timeout event or runt, or even include the RF input in a logic pattern defined along with the analog and digital channels. In addition to its mixed-domain capabilities, the MDO4000 offers all the tools of Tektronix MSO4000B mixed-signal oscilloscope series combined with the features of a mainstream spectrum analyzer.

The MDO4000 comes in four models operating at analog bandwidths of 500 MHz or 1 GHz and RF frequency ranges from 50 kHz to 3 or 6 GHz. Base price: $19,900, Tektronix, www.tektronix.com.