Evaluation Engineering - 19

adding that PicoScope is small enough
to set up on the kitchen table while offering the functionality of an oscilloscope,
spectrum analyzer, logic analyzer (MSO
models), protocol analyzer, function generator, and arbitrary generator, as well as
a data-acquisition system for long-duration stress testing.
Smith added that while Pico T&M
products are equally at home in the lab or
in the field, higher-performance products
such as the latest PicoScope 6000E Series
500-MHz oscilloscopes and the PicoVNA
108 8.5-GHz vector network analyzer require an external power supply. " Design
and test engineers mostly interact with
their instrument using a mouse, while
field repair technicians are more likely
to choose the touch screen. But that's just
user preference-it makes no difference
to the measurements or analysis that can
be performed. "
According to Pemmaiah at Copper
Mountain Technologies, " CMT's Compact
and 1-Port VNAs are versatile and portable. This makes them ideal for specialists
working in the field, as well as laboratory
and production testing in a wide variety of
industries. " He also said the company's instruments deliver lab-grade performance
while being more compact than benchtop instruments, adding that Copper
Mountain's patented reflectometer can be
directly connected to an antenna or other
DUT without the need of a test cable.
Wimsatt at Newark said the PicoScope
6000E Series scopes are suitable for design
engineers working on high-performance
embedded systems, signal processing,
power electronics, mechatronics, and automotive designs as well as for researchers
and scientists working on multichannel
high-performance experiments in physics labs, particle accelerators, and similar
facilities. " The series offers high performance with tremendous portability; it's
as flexible as any laptop, " he said. " In addition to the portability and flexibility,
the PC-based design offers considerable
cost savings, as it utilizes the processing
power of the user's existing computer. "

Technology innovation
Keysight integrates novel RFIC design
technologies into FieldFox to enable its

small-footprint multifunction capabilities, according to Gross. " These technologies also allow FieldFox to take on
much higher RF power without significantly increasing power consumption, "
she said. " Altogether,
these innovat ions enable
Keysight to offer a mmWave
instrument for 5G
testing with almost
4-hour battery life
that a person can hold
in one hand. "
Rohde & Schwarz designs
many of its own ASICs, including those
for handheld instruments, according to
Markley. " Things like 10-bit ADCs are
uncommon in handheld oscilloscopes,
but well suited to applications like power
analysis where handheld oscilloscopes
are often used, " he said. " We also continue
to design-in touchscreens to many of our
devices, " thereby giving users a flexible
environment for controlling the instrument, whether by way of a touchscreen
or-should they have protective gloves
on-large knobs and buttons.
Smith at Pico Technology described
PicoScopes as PC-based instruments
with the PicoScope 6 UI designed to
take advantage of processor and display
technology improvements as they become
available and affordable. He added that
the company is working on the nextgeneration multiplatform PicoScope UI,
with enhanced support for touchscreen
operation, multiple displays, and more.
" On the acquisition side, the 5000D
Series have deep waveform-capture
memory, up to 512 MS-many times
larger than competing scopes, " Smith
said. " Deep memory enables the capture
of long-duration waveforms at maximum
sampling speed. Pico's DeepMeasure tool
can make use of the deep memory to analyze every cycle contained in each triggered waveform acquisition. It displays results in a table, with the parameter fields
shown in columns and waveform cycles
shown in rows. The current version of the
tool includes twelve parameters per cycle
and can display up to a million cycles. "
Smith added that PicoScope hardware

Pico Technology 5000D Series
FlexRes oscilloscope with PicoScope
6 software running on a laptop.
Courtesy of Pico Technology

can be used with PicoLog 6 application
software for high-channel-count dataacquisition applications. " Up to 20 instruments, so 80 channels, can be set to record
simultaneously at up to 10 measurements
per second, giving virtually unlimited logging capacity to the PC, subject only to
battery and hard-disk capacities, " he said.
Wimsatt at Newark elaborated on
the PicoScope 6000E Series scopes.
" Conventional 8-channel benchtop
mixed-signal oscilloscopes can occupy
too much space on the bench and are
often too costly for engineers working
on next-generation designs, " he said.
" PicoScope 6000E Series oscilloscopes
are small and portable while offering
the high-performance specifications
required by engineers in the lab or on
the move. These oscilloscopes offer
eight analog channels, plus an optional
8 or 16 digital channels with the plug-in
8-channel TA369 MSO pods. The flexible
high‑resolution display options enable
you to view and analyze each signal in
detail. " He added that the scopes come
with PicoScope 6 software, included in
the cost of the scope. The software can
be installed on as many PCs as the customer wants.
Ongoing advancements in measurement technology and computer technology will continue to improve the
functionality and usability of portable
analyzers and scopes. Their flexibility
enables them to be deployed effectively
in the lab, the factory, the field, and-even
when COVID-19 is finally vanquished-
the home.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 EVALUATIONENGINEERING.COM

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Evaluation Engineering

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