A new lineup of compact digital oscilloscopes that are capable of achieving a maximum sampling rate of 10 gigasamples per second (10GS/s) at bandwidths of 1.0 to 1.5GHz has been developed by Yokogawa Electric Corp., Tokyo, Japan.

The DL9000 signalXplorer series is the company's first GHz-bandwidth digital oscilloscope. Conventional products in this bandwidth range have been desktop-sized and quite expensive, Yokogawa says.

The DL9000 series has been developed to deliver high performance at low cost in a highly portable package smaller than other GHz-bandwidth digital oscilloscopes on the market today. Depth is less than 18cm.

According to the manufacturer, with the increasing speed of devices such as ICs that are being embedded in consumer and other kinds of electronic equipment, demand is growing for digital oscilloscopes that can handle high-speed signals. A bandwidth of 500MHz used to be sufficient for general-purpose oscilloscopes, but 1GHz is now the norm.

Oscilloscope users are also demanding an increase in the frequency of waveform data acquisition by reducing dead time, which is the time interval between waveform acquisitions. In addition, users are asking for a more intuitive display that will allow them to confirm on a screen the frequency of abnormal signals and the normal signal-to-noise ratio (S/N ratio), just like with an analog oscilloscope.

The company's new scopes are powered by a proprietary advanced data stream engine (ADSE) waveform data processor that enables the accurate acquisition of high-speed, GHz bandwidth signals for screen display.

In the fastest waveform acquisition mode, up to 1600 partitions can be created in acquisition memory, dead time can be reduced to 400ns, and a maximum of 2.5 million waveforms per second can be acquired by each of four channels.

In accumulation mode, 25,000 waveforms can be acquired per second per channel. Of those, the latest 2,000 can be recorded in history memory. When an abnormal signal occurs, this enables the verification of acquired data for individual waveforms, the display and examination of the correlations between data from channels, and the measurement of waveform parameters.

The instruments are equipped with 8.4-inch color LCDs (XGA, 1024x768 pixels). Acquired signal waveforms can be accumulated and displayed by intensity level according to the frequency of abnormal phenomena. This gives users a quick grasp of the frequency and S/N ratio of noise and fluctuations.

For the accurate probing of high speed signals, Yokogawa has developed a 2.5GHz-bandwidth compact and lightweight active probe. It uses high-density mounting technology and a dedicated IC developed by the maker. A tip spring contact facilitates the probing of signals from high-density mounted circuits.

Applications include:
*Design and evaluation of circuits of devices embedded in cellular phones, flat-screen TVs, etc.
*Confirmation of operation of dedicated devices such as FPGAs and ASICs.
*Observation of control signals from microcontrollers, etc. as well as debugging of control firmware.
*Troubleshooting and evaluation of communication bus data.