Analyze Multiple Domains with Just One Oscilloscope (.PDF Download)

When discussing oscilloscopes, Tektronix is a name that will likely come up thanks to the company’s long history with this ubiquitous test instrument. While Tektronix has been in the business of manufacturing oscilloscopes for many years, the company continues to push the technology bar higher with its latest products and innovations.

For example, last year, I wrote about Tektronix’s 6 Series MSO Oscilloscopes, which were introduced right about that time. The 6 Series MSO instruments offer a bandwidth as high as 8 GHz along with 25-Gsample/s sample rates.

Here, I’ll present a closer look at the 6 Series MSO oscilloscopes, since Tektronix was kind enough to loan me one (Fig. 1). Specifically, this article explores a significant feature known as Spectrum View, which brings mixed-domain analysis to the 4, 5, and 6 Series MSO oscilloscopes. Spectrum View makes it possible to not only perform time- and frequency-domain analysis at the same time, but independently optimize displays of both domains. That means changing the measurement settings in one domain has no effect on the other.