Iridescent future ahead for the oscilloscope market

Compared with other types of general-purpose test and measurement equipment, the oscilloscope market has witnessed the most technological innovations and changing market trends. The oscilloscope market exceeded $1.2 billion in 2007, driven primarily by constantly evolving technologies in the communications and computer industries.

Demand for analog oscilloscopes continues to decline as they become replaced by digital and PC-based versions.

Another standard that is growing in prominence in the audio/video application space is DisplayPort, the high-speed serial interface standard developed by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). DisplayPort, which aims at addressing the growing bandwidth needs of high-resolution audio and video applications, is expected to replace LVDS, DVI, and VGA, thereby providing significant growth opportunities for oscilloscope vendors.

The communications industry also provides significant growth potential for the oscilloscope market. The transition from analog to digital RF technology has generated the need for high-performance RF test tools and has fueled the demand for digital as well as PC-based oscilloscopes or digitizers. At the same time, demand for their analog counterparts continues to decline. Unable to keep pace with challenges associated with complex signal analysis, analog scopes have limited capabilities that are driving them toward extinction (figure).

There has been increasing demand among customers for the ability to tailor their test equipment for particular applications. Customers look for a software-based approach to instrumentation that allows them to customize their own solutions, and PC-based oscilloscopes are able to take advantage of the power and versatility of PCs. While the concept of a software-based approach to testing has been around for more than two decades, it has gained prominence over the past few years because of two key technological trends that have helped customers improve throughput while reducing the cost of test: the adoption of high-speed serial buses like PCI Express and the evolution of multicore processors.

With technology evolving at unprecedented rates in the communication and PC industries and as the use of high-speed serial interfaces continues to spread across various consumer market segments, the future of the oscilloscopes market has never held more promise. The performance competencies of these instruments will continue to improve to surpass the needs of its demanding and diverse customer base.