Digital oscilloscopes have sure come a long way since I was writing about them more than 20 years ago. Now, RF DesignLine has posted Part One of a two-part article, Tradeoffs and the Evolution of the Digital Oscilloscope, that argues that most, if not all, the limitations that plagued digital scopes have now been overcome. The author, Phil Stearns of Agilent Technologies writes:
In the last 35 years the industry has witnessed a transition of the most fundamental tool on the electrical engineers bench — the oscilloscope. Since 1971, the time of Hiro Moriyasu’s first digital oscilloscope, there has been a steady transition from analog scope technology. While the benefits of digital technology were immediately apparent, the limitations of this technology required changes in debugging techniques that are in many cases not necessary today.
This article will focus on the “final few” tradeoffs and how new technologies have eliminated them. As a result, we’ll rediscover a few older techniques that you can now use with confidence.
I must admit that I haven’t used any of the new scopes, so can’t comment on this from personal experience, but what Stearns says about how these limitations have been overcome makes a lot of sense. As with all electronics products, it’s the implementation that will make all the difference. I don’t doubt, though, that the fine engineers at Agilent, Tek, LeCroy, and other scope companies have come up with digital scopes that are more useful than ever.
At the end of the article—at the bottom of page 2—don’t miss the list of related articles.
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