FROM EDN EUROPE: Fast display mode upgrades DSO's signal coverage
By Graham Prophet -- EDN, February 2, 2006
The WaveRunner Xi series of oscilloscopes from LeCroy updates the WaveRunner product line with a larger display, smaller bench-top footprint and a new fast display mode. Three instruments span 400 to 600 MHz real-time bandwidth, with 5 Gsamples/sec sampling on two or four channels, and with 2 million data-point storage per channel. Interleaving allows 10 Gsamples/sec on two channels, with a doubling of the total data points per channel. Additional memory options can extend this figure to a maximum of 24 Mpoints. A generous margin of sampling rate over real-time bandwidth of at least 10:1 ensures signal fidelity in the displayed waveform, LeCroy asserts.
Xi series units have 10-in. SVGA LCDs and occupy a front-to-back bench space of only 15 cm. A further innovation is the WaveStream Fast Viewing mode, that reduces the "dead time" in the acquisition cycle to a level similar to that of an analogue oscilloscope, and provides the user with the alternative of a short record viewing or long-capture-time analysis. In the WaveStream mode, successive repetitions of the same waveform data are mapped to a graded-intensity display, so that aspects of the waveform that are unchanged between captures display brightest. This data then "decays" over time in a facsimile of the behaviour of an analogue persistence-phosphor screen. However, as the instrument is digital, it will clearly display even one occurrence of a signal artifact or glitch as a diagnostic tool. The WaveStream mode operates at up to 10 Gsamples/sec.
Behind the notebook-like display is the Windows XP operating system, and the LCD is also a touch-screen. LeCroy provides a stylus (and a slot to store it) that the user can employ to set markers on areas of interest on a waveforms. Thus, to "zoom" into a waveform you either set on-screen cursors with front-panel knobs, or you draw a box around the area of interest. Smart triggering extends to the full instrument bandwidth, and you can trigger with AC coupling, and high- or low-pass filtering. Other filter modes include runt, slew rate and video. Additional options cover digital filtering, jitter/timing analysis, power measurements, optical measurements, serial data and EMC. You can also add a 32-channel digital (logic-analyser-style) package for dense data display, and the ability to handle CAN bus data.
Without these options, the Xi series costs from €10,370 to 13,900 depending on channel count (2 or 4) and specification.
LeCroy, www.lecroy.com.
