Picoscope

Flexible Resolution Oscilloscopes

PicoScope: power, portability and versatility

Pico Technology continues to push the limits of PC oscilloscope design. For the first time in an oscilloscope, Pico Technology have used reconfigurable ADCs to offer a choice of 8-bit to 16-bit resolutions in a single product.

1 GS/s @ 8 bits, one channel125 MS/s at 14 bits, four channels

Flexible resolution

Most digital oscilloscopes gain their high sampling rates by interleaving multiple 8-bit ADCs. Despite careful design, the interleaving process introduces errors that always make the dynamic performance worse than the performance of the individual ADC cores.

The new PicoScope 5000 Series scopes have a significantly different architecture in which multiple high-resolution ADCs can be applied to the input channels in different time-interleaved and parallel combinations to boost either the sampling rate or the resolution.

In time-interleaved mode, the ADCs are interleaved to provide 1 GS/s at 8 bits (see diagram). Interleaving reduces the performance of the ADCs, but the resulting (60 dB SFDR) is still much better than oscilloscopes that interleave 8-bit ADCs. This mode can also provide 500 MS/s at 12 bits resolution.

In parallel mode, multiple ADCs are sampled in phase on each channel to increase the resolution and dynamic performance (see diagram). Sampling in parallel with multiple ADCs and combining the output reduces noise and also both the integral and differential nonlinearity.

Using parallel mode,  resolution is increased to 14 bits at 125 MS/s per channel (>70 dB SFDR). If only two channels are required then resolution can be increased to 15 bits, and in single-channel mode all the ADCs are combined to give a 16 bit mode at 62.5 MS/s. The software gives the choice of selecting the resolution or leaving the scope in “auto resolution” mode where the optimum resolution is used for the chosen settings.

High signal integrity

Most oscilloscopes are built down to a price; ours are built up to a specification.

Careful front-end design and shielding reduces noise, crosstalk and harmonic distortion. Over 20 years of high resolution oscilloscope design experience leads to improved pulse response and bandwidth flatness.

We are proud of the dynamic performance of our products and publish these specifications in detail. The result is simple: when you probe a circuit, you can trust in the waveform you see on the screen.

Portability

Pico Technology oscilloscopes are small, light and portable. In 2-channel mode the 5000 Series scopes can be powered from USB only, making them ideal for the engineer on the move. The external power supply is only needed when operating more than 2 channels. The 5000 Series oscilloscopes are suitable for field use in many applications, such as design, research, test, education, service and repair.