Tektronix Announces Release of MDO4000 Mixed Domain Oscilloscope Series

Tektronix (News - Alert), Inc., manufacturer of oscilloscopes, has announced the release of the first mixed domain oscilloscope (MDO) which provides combined functionality of an oscilloscope and a spectrum analyzer within a single instrument. Engineers leveraging the new MDO4000 Mixed Domain Oscilloscope Series can save a lot of debugging time and are provided with increased viewability to help troubleshoot embedded system designs, as the instrument can capture time-correlated analog and digital and RF signals across 4 analog, 16 digital and 1 RF channel.

The RF input frequency range goes up to 6 GHz and offers a capture bandwidth of ≥ 1 GHz at all center frequencies. Engineers can also view 4 decoded serial and/or parallel buses on one display simultaneously. The device enables accurate timing measurements so engineers can understand delays between command / control events within their design. It also enables understanding of changes in the RF spectrum.

As the MDO4000 Mixed Domain Oscilloscope Series offer complete time correlated system viewing over both domains, engineers can easily locate the source of erratic, device-state dependant EMI noise. The MDO4000 also makes it easy for users to view RF spectrum of a signal at any point in time within a long acquisition to track spectrum changes over time or with device state. 

In a release, Roy Siegel, general manager of Oscilloscopes at Tektronix said that, “We believe that the MDO4000 Series is the most revolutionary product to hit the oscilloscope market in the last 20 years, for the first time breaking down the barrier between time and frequency domains. It fundamentally changes what's involved in debugging designs with RF where there is a need to correlate events in the frequency domain with the time domain phenomena that caused them. Just as the mixed signal oscilloscope (MSO) is the standard for embedded design test, we expect the MDO will become the new standard for designs that increasingly include RF capabilities.”

The Mixed Domain Oscilloscope Series can be applied for debugging of wireless-enabled designs at system-level. It allows integrated debugging of common wireless modules below 6 GHz and of 'home grown' amplitude, frequency, or phase modulated wireless communications as well as wideband analysis of dual band transceivers.  

Ward Ramsdell, electrical engineer and owner of Prototype Engineering said that, “The complexity of debugging issues in modern wireless systems, combined with the lack of equipment designed for the task has forced us to spend many hours focusing on the test setup rather than the design issue itself. Based on our early usage of the MDO series, we believe that these oscilloscopes will help us to deliver our designs to our customer faster than ever before, and with more comprehensive verification of the system's functionality.”  

He continued, ”This is because for the first time we're able to simultaneously visualize multiple points in a design, looking at analog, digital and RF aspects of the system's operation, which allows us to quickly track down design issues and better understand the real-world performance of the system at a high level.   The Mixed Domain Oscilloscope signifies a fundamental change in the test equipment landscape, and will absolutely improve the way we approach our work.”

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