USB sampling scopes now range to 25 GHz
Sampling scopes are an established route to viewing signals at frequencies well in excess of the basic sampling rate of the instrument; with the fundamental limitation that they are applicable to viewing repetitive signals and are not appropriate for capturing non-recurring or transient events.
Sampling scopes, Pico asserts, are a cost-effective solution to probing the increasing range of gigabit-per-second datastreams and their copper, wireless and optical fibre interconnect. The 2 and 4 channel 25 GHz models join the 20 GHz PicoScope 9300 Series, and support fifth harmonic capture for data up to including 10 Gbit/sec, and third harmonic capture up to 16 Gb/sec. These rates, and others, are increasingly found in Ethernet, Thunderbolt, USB 3.1, PCIe 4, Rapid I/O, e-SATA, OC-192 / STM-64 and OC-256. All have transmission lines, cables, components, transmitters and receivers that need pre-compliance testing and characterization.
For many users, Pico says, owning a real-time scope with 25 GHz bandwidth is unrealistic, with prices starting from $200,000. Renting is usually the only option but even that can be costly: the company presents its 25 GHz sampling scope as a fully-owned for the equivalent of 1 month’s rent of a 25 GHz real-time unit.
Pico’ complementary offering to probe broadband signals in-system imposes minimal invasion of the measurement, to avoid interrupting system function, in the form of its PicoConnect 900 probes. This is a comprehensive family of microwave and gigabit products, configured as interchangeable AC or DC coupled probe heads in three division ratios (÷5, ÷10 and ÷20), suited to in-system probing of analogue, pulse, impulse and high-speed serial data streams. They will interface to any other instrument type with 50Ω inputs.
All PicoScope 9300 Sampling Oscilloscopes can now be upgraded, free of charge, to full touchscreen operation with the latest PicoSample 3 software. PicoSample 3.25 also includes new masks for USB 2.0 and USB 3.1 Gen1 and Gen2.
PicoScope 9301-25 and 9341-25 Sampling Oscilloscopes are now available for $16,765 / €14,235 / £11,765 and $26,235 / €22,275 / £18,405 respectively.
Pico; www.picotech.com
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