Oscilloscopes
Oscilloscope, previously called an oscillograph,and informally known as a scope, CRO (for cathode-ray oscilloscope), or DSO (for the more modern digital storage oscilloscope), is a type of electronic test instrument that allows observation of constantly varying signal voltages, usually as a two-dimensional graph of one or more electrical potential differences using the vertical or y‑axis, plotted as a function of time (horizontal or x‑axis). Many signals can be converted to voltages and displayed this way. Signals are often periodic and repeat constantly, so that multiple samples of a signal which is actually varying with time are displayed as a steady picture. Many oscilloscopes (storage oscilloscopes) can also capture non-repeating waveforms for a specified time, and show a steady display of the captured segment.
Oscilloscopes are commonly used to observe the exact wave shape of an electrical signal. Oscilloscopes are usually calibrated so that voltage and time can be read as well as possible by the eye. This allows the measurement of peak-to-peak voltage of a waveform, the frequency of periodic signals, the time between pulses, the time taken for a signal to rise to full amplitude (rise time), and relative timing of several related signals. Oscilloscopes are used in the sciences, medicine, engineering, and telecommunications industry. General-purpose instruments are used for maintenance of electronic equipment and laboratory work. Special-purpose oscilloscopes may be used for such purposes as analyzing an automotive ignition system, or to display the waveform of the heartbeat as an electrocardiogram. Some computer sound software allows the sound being listened to be displayed on the screen as by an oscilloscope.
Before the advent of digital electronics oscilloscopes used cathode ray tubes as their display element (hence were commonly referred to as CROs) and linear amplifiers for signal processing. More advanced storage oscilloscopes used special storage CRTs to maintain a steady display of a single brief signal. CROs were later largely superseded by digital storage oscilloscopes (DSOs) with thin panel displays, fast analog-to-digital converters and digital signal processors. DSOs without integrated displays (sometimes known as digitisers) are available at lower cost, and use a general-purpose digital computer to process and display waveforms.
Types and models
The following section is a brief summary of various types and models available.
Cathode-ray oscilloscope (CRO)
The earliest and simplest type of oscilloscope consisted of a cathode ray tube, a vertical amplifier, a timebase, a horizontal amplifier and a power supply. These are now called analog scopes to distinguish them from the digital scopes that became common in the 1990s and 2000s.
Analog scopes do not necessarily include a calibrated reference grid for size measurement of waves, and they may not display waves in the traditional sense of a line segment sweeping from left to right. Instead, they could be used for signal analysis by feeding a reference signal into one axis and the signal to measure into the other axis. For an oscillating reference and measurement signal, this results in a complex looping pattern referred to as a Lissajous curve. The shape of the curve can be interpreted to identify properties of the measurement signal in relation to the reference signal, and is useful across a wide range of oscillation frequencies.
Dual-beam oscilloscope
The dual-beam analog oscilloscope can display two signals simultaneously. A special dual-beam CRT generates and deflects two separate beams. Although multi-trace analog oscilloscopes can simulate a dual-beam display with chop and alternate sweeps, those features do not provide simultaneous displays.
Analog storage oscilloscope
Trace storage is an extra feature available on some analog scopes; they used direct-view storage CRTs. Storage allows the trace pattern that normally decays in a fraction of a second to remain on the screen for several minutes or longer. An electrical circuit can then be deliberately activated to store and erase the trace on the screen.
Digital oscilloscopes
While analog devices make use of continually varying voltages, digital devices employ binary numbers which correspond to samples of the voltage. In the case of digital oscilloscopes, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is used to change the measured voltages into digital information.
The digital storage oscilloscope, or DSO for short, is now the preferred type for most industrial applications, although simple analog CROs are still used by hobbyists. It replaces the unreliable storage method used in analog storage scopes with digital memory, which can store data as long as required without degradation. It also allows complex processing of the signal by high-speed digital signal processing circuits.
A standard DSO is limited to capturing signals with a bandwidth of less than half the sampling rate of the ADC . There is a variation of the DSO called the digital sampling oscilloscope that can exceed this limit for certain types of signal, such as high-speed communications signals, where the waveform consists of repeating pulses. This type of DSO deliberately samples at a much lower frequency than the Nyquist limit and then uses signal processing to reconstruct a composite view of a typical pulse. A similar technique, with analog rather than digital samples, was used before the digital era in analog sampling oscilloscopes.A digital phosphor oscilloscope (DPO) uses color information to convey information about a signal. It may, for example, display infrequent signal data in blue to make it stand out. In a conventional analog scope, such a rare trace may not be visible.
Mixed-signal oscilloscopes
A mixed-signal oscilloscope or MSO has two kinds of inputs, a small number of analog channels, and a larger number of digital channels. It provides the ability to accurately time-correlate analog and digital channels, thus offering a distinct advantage over a separate oscilloscope and logic analyser. Typically, digital channels may be grouped and displayed as a bus with each bus value displayed at the bottom of the display in hex or binary. On most MSOs, the trigger can be set across both analog and digital channels.
Mixed-domain oscilloscopes
A mixed-domain oscilloscope (or MDO) has three kinds of inputs, a small number (typically two or four) analog channels, a larger number (typically sixteen) digital channels, and one RF channel. It provides the ability to accurately time-correlate analog, digital, and RF signals with each other, and allows the user to see how the RF spectrum changes over time.
Tektronix invented the MDO, and are currently the only company to offer a mixed-domain oscilloscope.
Handheld oscilloscopes
Handheld oscilloscopes are useful for many test and field service applications. Today, a hand held oscilloscope is usually a digital sampling oscilloscope, using a liquid crystal display.
PC-based oscilloscopes
A new type of oscilloscope is emerging that consists of a specialized signal acquisition board . The user interface and signal processing software runs on the user's computer, rather than on an embedded computer as in the case of a conventional DSO.
Related instruments
A large number of instruments used in a variety of technical fields are really oscilloscopes with inputs, calibration, controls, display calibration, etc., specialized and optimized for a particular application. Examples of such oscilloscope-based instruments include waveform monitors for analyzing video levels in television productions and medical devices such as vital function monitors and electrocardiogram and electroencephalogram instruments. In automobile repair, an ignition analyzer is used to show the spark waveforms for each cylinder.
All of these are essentially oscilloscopes, performing the basic task of showing the changes in one or more input signals over time in an X‑Y display.Other instruments convert the results of their measurements to a repetitive electrical signal, and incorporate an oscilloscope as a display element. Such complex measurement systems include spectrum analyzers, transistor analyzers, and time domain reflectometers (TDRs). Unlike an oscilloscope, these instruments automatically generate stimulus or sweep a measurement parameter.