Oscilloscopes are mainstay test instruments for many electronics labs and production test facilities. They have grown with technology over the years, but perhaps none as much as the InfiniiVision 4000 X-Series oscilloscope line from Agilent Technologies. These mixed-signal oscilloscopes (MSOs) and digital-sampling oscilloscopes (DSOs) not only leverage fast sampling speeds to capture more signals, but also take advantage of novel segmented memory, a special application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), and 12.1-in. capacitive touchscreens. These features bring new levels of capability and performance to oscilloscope measurements for models from 200 MHz to 1.5 GHz.
1. InfiniiVision 4000 X-Series oscilloscopes are available with analog bandwidths from 200 MHz to 1.5 GHz and an easy-to-use 12.1-in. capacitive touchscreen.
The InfiniiVision 4000 X-Series family (Fig. 1) numbers eight MSOs and eight DSOs, with bandwidths from 200 MHz to 1.5 GHz. The DSO models offer two or four analog input channels, while the MSO models add 16 digital input channels to the two or four analog input channels (see table). As an example of how far these instruments have come from conventional oscilloscopes, these instruments actually house five measurement tools in each enclosure (Fig. 2), with multiple analog test signal channels, digital channels, protocol analysis capability, a dual-channel arbitrary waveform (ARB) generator for signal generation, and an integrated digital voltmeter (DVM).
Each instrument has a sampling rate of 2.5 GSamples/s on all measurement channels, and this capability can be interleaved to 5.0 GSamples/s when making half-channel measurements. All of the instruments feature a fast update rate of 1 million waveforms/s to capture the most elusive events.
2. The powerful InfiniiVision 4000 X-Series oscilloscopes provide five measurement tools in one instrument, with oscilloscope, logic analyzer (in the MSO versions), protocol analyzer, arbitrary waveform generator, and digital voltmeter.
To assist in snaring anomalies and transient signal events, the InfiniiVision 4000 X-Series oscilloscopes incorporate patented MegaZoom IV ASIC smart memory technology. Working with the instruments’ segmented memory, this technology helps selectively capture more waveform data than conventional oscilloscopes using the same amount of acquisition memory. For example, memory is not consumed for the time between waveforms—only for the events of interest.
When waveforms are displayed on screen, the large 12.1-in. capacitive touchscreen works as an ally to help isolate anomalies and portions of interest. The InfiniiScan Zone touch triggering capability makes it possible to draw a box around a signal of interest on the touch screen and trigger on it. The update rate of this InfiniiScan Zone touch triggering capability is 200,000 waveforms/s. In their standard configuration, the InfiniiVision 4000 X-Series scopes includes 4 Mpoints of memory as well as segmented memory for efficient capture of transient events. The scopes were designed for use with the touchscreens: In addition to the InfiniiScan Zone touch triggering, the touchscreen interface includes an alphanumeric touchpad embedded within it, replacing conventional time-consuming, knob-based operation.
The InfiniiVision 4000 X-Series oscilloscopes include powerful mathematics functions for analyzing captured signals, as well as automatic triggering and decoding for a wide range of protocol applications. Some of these protocols and standards include Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0, USB 2.0 Hi-Speed, MIL-STD-1553 and ARINC 429, RS-232/422/485/UART, I2C/SPI, CAN/LIN, and FlexRay. These five-in-one instruments boast a great deal of measurement power with a wide choice of bandwidths. In addition, they are fully upgradable, so a choice made today can be converted into a more powerful solution in the future. Prices start at $5600 for a 200-MHz DSO model with two analog input channels.
Agilent Technologies, Inc., 5301 Stevens Creek Blvd., Santa Clara, CA 95051; (877) 424-4536, (408) 345-8886, FAX: (408) 345-8475, e-mail: us@agilent.com, www.agilent.com.