November 2016
32
t
ools
& s
oftware
Oscilloscope for complex measurement
tasks and multi-domain applications
By Guido Schulze,
Rohde & Schwarz
Developers of electronic designs want
to perform complex measurement
tasks quickly and successfully. And
they also want to do so with a pow-
erful, highly versatile and intuitive lab
oscilloscope. The new R&S RTO2000
oscilloscope gives them what they
need.
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The new R&S RTO2000 oscilloscopes offer
excellent signal fidelity, up to 16-bit vertical
resolution and high acquisition rates in the
600 MHz to 4 GHz class. A broad range of
tools along with user-friendly operation and
documentation functions facilitate time-cor-
related analysis of the wide variety of signals
found in embedded designs.
The staggering need for costefficient and pow-
erful communications and control electronics
for industry, motor vehicles and the enter-
tainment and smart home sector is driving
the integration of electronic circuits. These
advanced embedded designs integrate a vari-
ety of functional units and technologies. The
processor, power management, digital com-
munications interfaces, local program mem-
ory, data memory and sensors all operate in
the smallest of spaces. The next integration
step is radio modules. The variety of signal
waveforms is quite large, ranging from RF
radio signals, analog signals from sensors or
protocol-coded signals from the control inter-
faces (figure 2). This complexity represents a
challenge for developers because highly inte-
grated designs are significantly more prone to
mutual interference. Undesirable interactions
must be eliminated with an exact time refer-
ence at the system level. Therefore embed-
ded designs, i.e. the large-scale integration of
components based on a variety of technolo-
gies, represent the greatest T&M challenge
in development and service today. These
demanding measurement tasks require intelli-
gent solutions such as those offered by the new
oscilloscope, the all-in-one test instrument for
multi-domain applications. Its comprehensive
toolset includes functions for time, frequency,
logic and protocol analysis – a variety that in
the past required several single-purpose test
instruments.
The low-noise front-ends and high-resolu-
tion A/D converters allow the analog input
channels to perform highly accurate mea-
surements in the time domain across a large
dynamic range. Users benefit from reliable
results, whether performing easy voltage level
checks over time or specialized measurements
such as jitter analyses on clock or data signals
or power analyses on switched-mode power
supplies. The 16 digital channels extend the
oscilloscope test resources, e.g. to precisely
measure the logical level (high, low) on dig-
ital interfaces over time. Even timing errors
in parallel interfaces are quickly detected.
The many tools for analyzing protocol-based
serial interfaces provide a broad spectrum of
trigger and decoding options for a variety of
standards, including I2C, SPI, USB and Ether-
net. The oscilloscope allows both analog and
digital channels to be used for protocol decod-
ing. And it uses its hardware-assisted protocol
triggering to reliably and quickly trigger on
details such as addresses or data.
Even in situations where spectrum analyzers
are the first choice for precise measurements
on radio interfaces, the oscilloscope is highly
suitable for acquiring radio signals thanks to
the high dynamic range of its analog channels.
When testing at the system level, the channels
deliver a precise time correlation to the other
functional units in embedded designs. Figure
3 shows the variety of measurement options
in an Internet of Things (IoT) application with
a Wi-Fi radio module. Channel 1 (yellow)
acquires the Wi-Fi signal and displays it in the
time domain. However, the signal waveform
is not clearly recognizable until it is viewed
in the spectrum (Math4). Channel 3 (orange)
shows how the radio activity affects current
consumption. The timing of the USB interface
control commands is also visible. A decoding
option decodes the signals acquired on chan-
nels 2 and 4 (green and blue) into readable
USB data.
Once the initial functional tests on the elec-
tronic design are completed, circuit opti-
mization starts. For mobile applications,
minimizing current consumption is para-
mount. This requires a measurement instru-
ment that can resolve low currents down into
the 1mA range while also correlating the tim-
Figure 1. Engineered for
multi-domain challenges: the
new R
&
S®RTO2000 oscilloscope
