Tektronix MSO4 Oscilloscope Series 200 MHz to 1.5 GHz

SHORT DESCRIPTION

Oscilloscope Series Tektronix MSO4 contain 4 or 6 analog channels, each of which, when connected to the TLP058 probe, can work as 8 digital channels. This technology is called FlexChannel. With its help, simply by changing the probes of the oscilloscope, you can get the necessary combination of analog channels (up to 6 pcs.) and digital channels (up to 48 pcs.). This flexibility greatly enhances the MSO4's ability to design and debug complex electronic devices.

The second feature of the Tektronix MSO4 series oscilloscopes is a large and high-quality touch display with a diagonal of 33.8 cm and a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels. Well thought-out knobs and control buttons, combined with a multi-touch touch display, make it very easy and quick to set up and analyze measurement results. Please note that all four new Tektronix oscilloscope series (MDO3, MSO4, MSO5 and MSO6) feature Full HD (1920x1080) touchscreens, the same controls and user interface. This unification allows you to save the usual work skills when moving from oscilloscopes of the younger series to the older ones and vice versa.

In addition to the benefits listed above, Tektronix MSO4 oscilloscopes offer many innovative features, such as a 12-bit ADC, as well as the ability to detect very short waveform events with continuous acquisition rates of over 500,000 waveforms per second. You can download a full description of all the characteristics of the MSO4 series oscilloscopes below on this page in the section Documentation.

Attention, promotion (savings up to 53%)!
From March 30 to June 25, 2021, when you buy a new Tektronix MSO4 series oscilloscope, you get an oscilloscope with a higher bandwidth (bought 200 MHz, got 350 MHz, etc.). In addition, the following options will be installed in this oscilloscope free of charge:
- option 4-AFG (built-in generator of standard (13 pcs.) and arbitrary signals with a bandwidth of up to 50 MHz).
- option 4-SRAUTO (decoding and analysis of serial buses: CAN, LIN, FlexRay).
- option 4-SRCOMP (decoding and analysis of serial buses: RS-232/422/485/UART).
- option 4-SREMBD (decoding and analysis of serial buses: I2C, SPI).
- option 4-PWR-BAS (measurement and analysis of the characteristics of power electronics components).

Section filters "Buy an oscilloscope":
Bandwidth: 100 MHz or less, 200 MHz, 300 MHz, 500 MHz, 1 GHz or more.
Subsections: USB oscilloscopes, best models, all models, comparison, Video reviews, basic theory.
Articles and reviews: how to choose an oscilloscope, digital phosphor technology, power supply development.

Tektronix MSO4 Series Key Features:
200 MHz, 6.25 GS/s, 4 FlexChannels (Tektronix Model MSO44-BW-200).
200 MHz, 6.25 GS/s, 6 FlexChannels (Tektronix Model MSO46-BW-200).
350 MHz, 6.25 GS/s, 4 FlexChannels (Tektronix Model MSO44-BW-350).
350 MHz, 6.25 GS/s, 6 FlexChannels (Tektronix Model MSO46-BW-350).
500 MHz, 6.25 GS/s, 4 FlexChannels (Tektronix Model MSO44-BW-500).
500 MHz, 6.25 GS/s, 6 FlexChannels (Tektronix Model MSO46-BW-500).
1 GHz, 6.25 GS/s, 4 FlexChannels (Tektronix Model MSO44-BW-1000).
1 GHz, 6.25 GS/s, 6 FlexChannels (Tektronix Model MSO46-BW-1000).
1.5 GHz, 6.25 GS/s, 4 FlexChannels (Tektronix Model MSO44-BW-1500).
1.5 GHz, 6.25 GS/s, 6 FlexChannels (Tektronix MSO46-BW-1500 model).
Any channel FlexChannel can work as one analog or as 8 digital channels.
Standard record length: 31.25M points per channel. Option: 62.5M points per channel.
Vertical resolution: 8 or 12 bits (up to 16 bits in high resolution mode).
Sensitivity: 0.5 mV/div to 10 V/div in 1-2-5 steps.
Continuous Waveform Capture Speed: More 500,000 waveforms/s.
36 automatic measurements, histograms, trend analysis, FFT (FFT), SpectrumView (option).
Built-in digital voltmeter and frequency counter (free of charge when registering the device).
Additional options: standard and arbitrary signal generator, logic analyzer up to 48 digital channels, serial bus protocol analyzer: I2C, MIPI I3C, SPI, RS-232/422/485/UART, CAN, LIN, USB 2.0, Ethernet, I2S, LJ, RJ , TDM and others.
33.8 cm touchscreen (1920 x 1080 resolution). Interfaces: USB, Ethernet, HDMI, etc.
Weight: 7.6 kg. Dimensions: 405 x 249 x 155 mm. Working temperature: from 0°С to +50°С.
Essential oscilloscope for multi-channel analog and digital systems

Necessary eight analogue FlexChannels? Watch the series Tektronix MSO5.
You need the same oscilloscope, but with a bandwidth greater than 1.5 GHz? Watch the series Tektronix MSO6.
Need an oscilloscope over 8 GHz bandwidth? See series Tektronix DPO/MSO70000.
Need an oscilloscope with integrated spectrum analyzer? See Tektronix MDO4000C or MDO3.
Need galvanized isolated channels? See Tektronix TPS2000B or Tektronix THS3000.
Difficult to decide on a model? See helper: How to quickly choose an oscilloscope.
All series of modern oscilloscopes are presented here: Digital oscilloscopes and probes.

Tektronix MSO4 Oscilloscope Series Video Reviews

In June 2019, the American company Tektronix released two new series of oscilloscopes, equipped with large touch screens, a new user interface and many innovative features.

The introduction of these two series was preceded by painstaking work and hundreds of consultations with leading development engineers to ensure that the capabilities of the new oscilloscopes included all their wishes. As a result, a series MDO3 (up to 1 GHz) and MSO4 (up to 1.5 GHz). This dynamic video reveals the strengths of these two new series.

And in this video, a Tektronix engineer goes into more detail about the features and benefits of the Tektronix MSO4 series of professional oscilloscopes. The main features of the series are shown, including convenient interaction with the oscilloscope using a large touch screen. The story is in English with Russian subtitles.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

There are many practical applications that require more than four analog oscilloscope channels. Some of them are: power supply engineering, automotive electronics, three-phase power systems, DC-DC and AC-DC converters, and complex embedded systems. When working on projects like this, many engineers find themselves in situations where they need to explore the behavior of signals more broadly, but simply lack the analog channels of their oscilloscope. Trying to use a second oscilloscope immediately leads to the difficulties of synchronizing the trigger point of the two instruments, as well as the inconvenience of analyzing signals on two different screens.

The Tektronix MSO4 oscilloscope series overcomes these limitations easily with 4- and 6-channel models, with 6-channel models priced at only 20% more than 4-channel equal bandwidth models.

This photo shows a 6-channel Tektronix MSO4 oscilloscope, four channels of which with different types of probes are used to analyze the main signals of the prototype under development, and two channels can be used to study additional signals at any time.

FlexChannel technology - any analog channel can work as 8 digital channels

Each channel of the Tektronix MSO4 oscilloscope can operate as one analog channel or as eight digital channels. If you connect any standard probe (passive, active, current, etc.), then the channel works like an analog one, and if you connect a special digital probe TLP058, then the channel starts working as eight digital. The appearance of the Tektronix MSO4 channel connectors is shown in this photo. These connectors are compatible with all standard oscilloscope probe connections (BNC, TekProbe and TekVPI), and the bottom row of small pads provides compatibility with the TLP058 digital probe.

This innovative technology is called FlexChannel and is included with all Tektronix MSO4 professional oscilloscopes, MSO5 and MSO6. Thanks to FlexChannel technology, you can add the required number of digital channels right in the process of working with MSO4: up to 32 pieces with 4-channel models and up to 48 pieces with 6-channel models. How it all works, see this video on the example of an eight-channel oscilloscope of the series MSO5.

It is worth noting that for many other series of oscilloscopes, the digitization speed and memory size when working with digital signals are significantly lower than when working with analog signals. But the Tektronix MSO4 series has a digital channel sampling rate equals digitization rate of analog channels and reaches 6.25 GS/s. The situation is similar with the memory size: each digital channel can contain up to 31.25 Mpts as standard, and with option 4-RL-1 up to 62.5 Mpts.

The photo below shows the screen of the MSO4 series oscilloscope. To measure the analog output of the DAC, the first FlexChannel of the oscilloscope is used (yellow sine waveform). Immediately below it, on the oscilloscope screen, are 8 digital signals of the parallel data bus of this DAC, which are measured using an eight-channel probe TLP058 connected to the second FlexChannel of the oscilloscope. For clarity, digital states are displayed in two colors: "1" in green, and "0" in blue. Even when there are dozens of digital channels on one screen, thanks to this color coding, you can very easily distinguish ones from zeros.

Control signals to this DAC are received via the SPI bus. At the very bottom of the screen are the decoded commands of the three lines of this bus (vertical white lines). These SPI bus signals are captured by another TLP058 probe that is connected to the oscilloscope's third FlexChannel, and the SPI bus signals are decoded using the 4-SREMBD option installed in the oscilloscope. Vertical white lines on digital graphs automatically mark those places where there are several transitions between states "0" and "1". By magnifying these areas, you can analyze them in detail.

For each digital signal, you can set individual threshold voltages. This allows you to work with different families of logical microcircuits, freely composing any combination of them.

ADC with 12-bit vertical resolution (and up to 16-bit in High Resolution mode)

To detect and measure low-amplitude signals superimposed on high-amplitude signals, the oscilloscope must have high-quality input paths and analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) of the maximum capacity. Such a need often arises when developing power supplies, as well as when searching for the mutual influence of some signals on others - crosstalk.

To effectively solve such problems, the measurement path of each channel of the Tektronix MSO4 series oscilloscope contains improved low-noise amplifier and 12-bit ADC with standard sample rate of 3.125 GS/s. For comparison, the bit width of this ADC provides 16 times more accurate display of signal amplitude compared to the 8-bit ADC used in most models of modern oscilloscopes.

You can further increase the vertical resolution of MSO4 oscilloscopes using the HighRes (High Resolution - high resolution mode) function, which is activated by the corresponding button on the front panel of the instrument (see photo below). When this function is activated, the oscilloscope uses a set of hardware digital filters that use the optimal filtering and averaging algorithm for each sample rate, which allows you to increase the effective bit depth of the ADC up to 16 bits at a sample rate of 125 MS/s.

The photo below shows an enlarged fragment of the same signal, measured with the HighRes function turned off (white stepped graph on the left, 12-bit resolution) and HighRes enabled (yellow smooth graph on the right, 16-bit resolution).

Also, all channels of Tektronix MSO4 oscilloscopes can digitize signals at a maximum rate of 6.25 GS/s, but the ADC bit depth is reduced to 8 bits. For clarity, in the lower left corner of this photo, the ADC bit depth of each channel is shown depending on the digitization rate.

Reliable search for rare signal anomalies

One of the complex problems that are often encountered in the development and debugging of electronic devices is random and rarely manifested anomalies of electrical signals, such as: failures of synchronization sequences, short jumps or dips in voltage (glitches), undersetting of logic levels (runts) and the like. .

To effectively detect and troubleshoot these issues, Tektronix MSO4 oscilloscopes provide measurement over 500,000 waveforms per second. The special processor of the oscilloscope analyzes all waveforms in real time and, using color coding, highlights infrequent events. This feature of the MSO4 Series oscilloscopes ensures that single signal deviations are detected, even as short as 2 µs. The photo below shows an example of how this feature works. Read more in a separate article: description of DPO technology.

Well thought out user interface

All Tektronix professional oscilloscopes of the MDO3, MSO4 series, MSO5 and MSO6 equipped with touch screens with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels and the same type of superbly designed user interface, which greatly speeds up and simplifies the work process. The photo below shows a screenshot of the oscilloscope screen, which perfectly illustrates the variety of DUT information you can get with the Tektronix MSO4 oscilloscope.

Yellow, blue and red graphics are three signals measured using analog channels. Their voltage levels are shown directly on the graphs (on the right), and the main settings of the measuring channels are in the status bar at the bottom (Ch1, Ch2 and Ch3). Below the three analog channels are eight digital signals (Ch4). Just below them is the decoded I2C serial bus data line signal.

To the right of the analog and digital graphs is a histogram of the distribution of the results of measurements of the rise time of the signal in the analog channel No. 1, and even to the right is a table with decoded I2C bus events, which contains the time of the event, the type of event (read or write) and the data that was read or written .

At the bottom of the screen is a wide table with four measurement results (Measurement Results): signal rise time in channel #1, data rate in channel #1, positive pulse width in channel #2, positive pulse duty cycle in channel #3.

Quality Probes - Quality Measurements

Oscilloscope probes are as important a part as the oscilloscope itself. Since the probe is located between the object of measurement and the oscilloscope, the quality of the measurement performed largely depends on it. An ideal probe should have a good bandwidth, low input capacitance, sufficient voltage tolerance, and at the same time be convenient and very reliable.

Tektronix MSO4 oscilloscope standard probes offer all of these features. Their design has been perfected over the years, and their electrical performance and reliability are among the best in the industry. Depending on the frequency range, Tektronix MSO4 oscilloscopes come with different probes. MSO4 200 MHz models come with four TPP0250 probes (250 MHz bandwidth). And MSO4 models from 350 MHz to 1.5 GHz come with four TPP0500B probes (500 MHz).

In general, many types of quality probes are available for the MSO4 series oscilloscopes: passive, active, high voltage, current, galvanically isolated, etc. See the full list of compatible probes below on this page in the section Options and accessories.

Tektronix TLP058 8-channel digital probe

As mentioned above, any analog input channel FlexChannel MSO4 oscilloscopes can be converted to 8 digital channels with a simple probe change. For such a replacement, you do not even need to turn off the oscilloscope. After connecting the Tektronix TLP058 digital probe, the oscilloscope will immediately detect it and 8 digital signals will appear on the screen. The appearance of the digital probe TLP058 is shown in this photo.

State of the art communication interfaces

Tektronix MSO4 oscilloscopes come standard with all the interfaces you need to remotely control these instruments or integrate them into automated measurement systems. This photo shows a fragment of the rear panel of the MSO4 oscilloscope, which contains the following communication interfaces: Ethernet with LXI support, USB 2.0 (for connecting to a computer), USB 2.0 (for connecting flash drives), HDMI (for connecting an external display).

To the right of the communication interfaces is a function generator output (option 4-AFG) and a 10 MHz external clock input.

Tektronix MSO4 Series Oscilloscope Specifications

Below is a list of key technical specifications for Tektronix MSO4 Series oscilloscopes. For detailed technical specifications, see below on this page in the section Documentation.

Tektronix MSO4 Series Oscilloscope Package Contents

Options and accessories for Tektronix MSO4 oscilloscopes

Main options:
- probe TLP058 (probe for 8 digital channels, connected to any channel FlexChannel).
- option 4-AFG (built-in generator of standard (13 pcs.) and arbitrary signals with a bandwidth of up to 50 MHz).
- option 4-SV-BAS (advanced analysis capabilities in the frequency domain - Spectrum View mode).
- option 4-SRCOMP (decoding and analysis of serial buses: RS-232/422/485/UART).
- option 4-SREMBD (decoding and analysis of serial buses: I2C, SPI).
- option 4-SRI3C (serial bus decoding and analysis: MIPI I3C).
- option 4-SRENET (Ethernet decoding and analysis: 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX).
- option 4-SRUSB2 (USB decoding and parsing: USB2.0 LS, FS, HS).
- option 4-SRAUTO (decoding and analysis of serial buses: CAN, LIN, FlexRay).
- option 4-SRAUTOSEN (decoding and analysis of the serial bus of automotive sensors: SENT).
- option 4-SRAERO (serial bus decoding and analysis: MIL-STD-1553, ARINC 429).
- option 4-SRAUDIO (decoding and analysis of serial audio buses: I2S, LJ, RJ, TDM).
- option 4-SRPM (decoding and analysis of the power management serial bus: SPMI).
- option 4-PWR-BAS (measurement and analysis of the characteristics of power electronics components).
- option 4-PS2 (includes option 4-PWR-BAS, THDP0200 and TCP0030A probes, and accessory 067-1686).
- option 4-RL-1 (expansion of memory capacity up to 62.5 million points per channel).
- option RM4 (kit for mounting the oscilloscope in a rack).
- option SC4 (soft shipping bag with protective cover for the front of the oscilloscope).
- option HC4 (hard transport case for oscilloscope and accessories).

Basic probes and accessories.
Here are the main probes and accessories compatible with the Tektronix MSO4 oscilloscope series. For detailed information on options, probes, etc., see below on this page in the section Documentation.