HAMEG Instruments recognised the upward trend towards MSOs (mixed signal oscilloscopes) and will launch it’s brand new family of DSO/MSO instruments in March 2009, which will bridge the market gap in the 350 MHz range at prices, starting from EUR 3.100.

Besides the real time sampling rate of 4 Gsample/s, the oscilloscopes capture periodic signals in random mode at a sampling rate of up to 50 Gsample/s. To account for DC coupled signals, each channel is provided with an individual selectable DC offset. To further facilitate signal analysis, the instruments are equipped with FFT and diverse auto measurement functions. A 6 digit counter, the adjustable persistence time and the display of seldom occurring signal details in inverse luminosity complete the picture. The HMO’s are equipped with three USB ports for mass storage, printer and remote control. Optionally, IEEE-488 or Ethernet/USB interfaces are also available.

Due to the memory depth of 2 Mpts per channel, signal sweeps can be magnified up to 100.000:1. This aids users in cutting down times for diagnosis of complex faults, where the cause often is far away from the trigger point. Due to the extremely low noise flash A/D converter, users get clear signal details even in the 1 mV/Div range.

Featuring VGA resolution, the 6.5 inch TFT display provides for 12 divisions in the horizontal direction. The MSO mode gives a clear readout of up to 16 digital channels. Using VirtualScreen, the typical display of 8 divisions for analogue signals can be extended to 10 divisions. On the other hand, a full screen display of the 16 logic channels can be arranged below the analogue channels. Besides using the DVI output for a projector, a standard TFT monitor can be connected – particularly useful for running manual alignment stations, built in 19” racks.

Setup of tricky trigger criteria

Besides standard trigger criteria, the trigger modes “pulse width”, “delayed” and “event” are also available. Modern devices are more and more equipped with embedded microcontrollers, memory interfaces, FPGAs and internal two or threewire interfaces. Their clock generation and internal processing often uses rectangular signals with frequency ranges beyond 50 MHz. Besides capturing the analogue curve shapes of critical signals like “chip select” or “read/write”, already the two channel HMO3522 is capable of recording up to 16 additional digital signals with 1Gsample/s and 2 Mpts using the active logic probe. Performing appropriate logical operations on the digital signals, the user can easily setup even complex triggering conditions to capture faults.