Special Report: Performance, formfactor, and software choices adapt scopes (.PDF Download)
Oscilloscopes span a range of performance and formfactor options, from a 110-GHz benchtop instrument to a pocket-sized USB model. High-end models target mmWave applications such as WiGig and 5G plus satellite communications and radar, while low-cost models aim to put a lab in the pocket of every engineer—or engineering student. In between, mainstream scopes address ADAS, power monitoring, IoT, embedded-systems design, EMC debug, and bus-decoding applications, among many others.
Targeting mmWave communications
Keysight Technologies has been focusing on the high end with new functionality for its UXR-Series oscilloscopes, which deliver fast, coherent analysis for wideband measurements up to 110 GHz to accelerate the development of next-generation mmWave communications applications.
Features include the ability to configure optional 5-GHz or 10-GHz analysis bandwidth windows within and above the UXR’s natively licensed bandwidth; availability of more than 2 GHz of digital downconversion (DDC) analysis bandwidth that can be used in conjunction with available mmWave frequency extension options to extend DDC accelerated frequency ranges as high as 110 GHz; and hardware-accelerated DDC to decimate oscilloscope captures in real-time to enable deep captures exceeding several seconds of time and accelerating processing up to 100x faster than nondecimated measurements.