Key performance specifications

• 1. Oscilloscope
  • 4 analog channels
  • 1 GHz, 500 MHz, 350 MHz, and 200 MHz bandwidth models
  • Bandwidth is upgradeable (up to 1 GHz)
  • Up to 5 GS/s sample rate
  • 20 M record length on all channels
  • > 340,000 wfm/s maximum waveform capture rate
  • Standard passive voltage probes with 3.9 pF capacitive loading and 1 GHz or 500 MHz analog bandwidth
• 2. Spectrum Analyzer (Optional)
  • Frequency range of 9 kHz - 3 GHz or 9 KHz - 6 GHz
  • Ultra-wide capture bandwidth ≥1 GHz
  • Time-synchronized capture of spectrum analyzer with analog and digital acquisitions
  • Frequency vs. time, amplitude vs. time, and phase vs. time waveforms
• 3. Arbitrary/Function Generator (Optional)
  • 13 predefined waveform types
  • 50 MHz waveform generation
  • 128 k arbitrary generator record length
  • 250 MS/s arbitrary generator sample rate
• 4. Logic Analyzer (Optional)
  • 16 digital channels
  • 20 M record length on all channels
  • 60.6 ps timing resolution
• 5. Protocol Analyzer (Optional)
  • Serial bus support for I²C, SPI, RS-232/422/485/UART, USB 2.0, Ethernet, CAN, LIN, FlexRay, MIL-STD-1553, and Audio standards
• 6. Digital Voltmeter / Frequency Counter (Free with product registration)
  • 4-digit AC RMS, DC, and AC+DC RMS voltage measurements
  • 5-digit frequency measurements

Typical applications

• Embedded design

  Discover and solve issues quickly by performing system level debug on mixed signal embedded systems including today's most common serial bus and wireless technologies.

• Power design

  Make reliable and repeatable voltage, current, and power measurements using automated power quality, switching loss, harmonics, ripple, modulation, and safe operating area measurements with the widest selection of power probes in an affordable solution.

• EMI troubleshooting

  Quickly track down the source of EMI in an embedded system by determining which time domain signals may be causing unwanted EMI. See in real-time the effects time domain signals have on system EMI emissions.

• Wireless troubleshooting

  Whether using Bluetooth, 802.11 WiFi, ZigBee, or some other wireless technology, the MDO4000C enables viewing an entire system - analog, digital, and RF, time-synchronized to understand its true behavior. Capture an ultra-wide band in a single capture to view interactions among multiple wireless technologies, or to view an entire broadband frequency range from a modern standard like 802.11/ad.

• Education

  Managing multiple instruments on a bench can be troublesome. The MDO4000C eliminates the need to manage multiple instruments by integrating six instrument types into a single instrument. The integration of a spectrum analyzer enables teaching of advanced wireless technology course work while minimizing the investment required. Full upgradeability enables adding functionality over time as needs change or budgets allow.

• Manufacturing Test and Troubleshooting

  Size and space constraints can play havoc on a manufacturing floor. The unique 6-in-1 MDO4000C minimizes rack or bench space by integrating multiple instruments into one small package. Integration reduces cost associated with utilizing multiple different instrument types in manufacturing test or troubleshooting stations.

1- Oscilloscope

At the core of the MDO4000C Series is a world-class oscilloscope, offering comprehensive tools that speed each stage of debug - from quickly discovering anomalies and capturing them, to searching your waveform record for events of interest and analyzing their characteristics and your device's behavior.

Digital phosphor technology with FastAcq® high-speed waveform capture

To debug a design problem, first you must know it exists. Every design engineer spends time looking for problems in their design, a time- consuming and frustrating task without the right debug tools.

Digital phosphor technology with FastAcq provides you with fast insight into the real operation of your device. Its fast waveform capture rate - greater than 340,000 wfms/s - gives you a high probability of quickly seeing the infrequent problems common in digital systems: runt pulses, glitches, timing issues, and more.

To further enhance the visibility of rarely occurring events, intensity grading is used to indicate how often rare transients are occurring relative to normal signal characteristics. There are four waveform palettes available in FastAcq acquisition mode.

• The Temperature palette uses color-grading to indicate frequency of occurrence with hot colors like red/yellow indicating frequently occurring events and colder colors like blue/green indicating rarely occurring events.
• The Spectral palette uses color-grading to indicate frequency of occurrence with colder colors like blue indicating frequently occurring events and hot colors like red indicating rarely occurring events.
• The Normal palette uses the default channel color (like yellow for channel one) along with gray-scale to indicate frequency of occurrence where frequently occurring events are bright.
• The Inverted palette uses the default channel color along with gray-scale to indicate frequency of occurrence where rarely occurring events are bright.

These color palettes quickly highlight the events that over time occur more often or, in the case of infrequent anomalies, occur less often.

Infinite or variable persistence choices determine how long waveforms stay on the display, helping you to determine how often an anomaly is occurring.

Digital phosphor technology enables a greater than 340,000 wfm/s waveform capture rate and real-time intensity grading.

Triggering

Discovering a device fault is only the first step. Next, you must capture the event of interest to identify root cause. To enable this, the MDO4000C contains over 125 trigger combinations providing a complete set of triggers - including runt, logic, pulse width/glitch, setup and hold violation, serial packet, and parallel data - to help quickly locate your event of interest. And with up to a 20 M record length, you can capture many events of interest, even thousands of serial packets, in a single acquisition for further analysis while maintaining high resolution to zoom in on fine signal details and record reliable measurements.

Over 125 trigger combinations make capturing your event of interest easy.

Wave Inspector® waveform navigation and automated search

With long record lengths, a single acquisition can include thousands of screens of waveform data. Wave Inspector®, the industry’s best tool for waveform navigation and automated search, enables you to find events of interest in seconds.

Wave Inspector controls provide unprecedented efficiency in viewing, navigating, and analyzing waveform data. Zip through your long record by turning the outer pan control (1). Get details from the beginning to end in seconds. See something of interest and want to see more details? Just turn the inner zoom control (2).

Zoom and pan

A dedicated, two-tier front-panel control provides intuitive control of both zooming and panning. The inner control adjusts the zoom factor (or zoom scale); turning it clockwise activates zoom and goes to progressively higher zoom factors, while turning it counterclockwise results in lower zoom factors and eventually turning zoom off. No longer do you need to navigate through multiple menus to adjust your zoom view. The outer control pans the zoom box across the waveform to quickly get to the portion of waveform you are interested in. The outer control also utilizes force-feedback to determine how fast to pan on the waveform. The farther you turn the outer control, the faster the zoom box moves. Pan direction is changed by simply turning the control the other way.

User marks

Press the Set Mark front-panel button to place one or more marks on the waveform. Navigating between marks is as simple as pressing the Previous (←) and Next (→) buttons on the front panel.

Search Marks

The Search button allows you to automatically search through your long acquisition looking for user-defined events. All occurrences of the event are highlighted with search marks and are easily navigated to, using the front- panel Previous (←) and Next (→) buttons. Search types include edge, pulse width/glitch, timeout, runt, logic, setup and hold, rise/fall time, parallel bus, and I²C, SPI, RS-232/422/485/UART, USB 2.0, Ethernet, CAN, LIN, FlexRay, MIL-STD-1553, and I²S/LJ/RJ/TDM packet content. A search mark table provides a tabular view of the events found during the automated search. Each event is shown with a time stamp, making timing measurements between events easy.

Search step 1: You define what you would like to find.


Search step 2: Wave Inspector automatically searches through the record and marks each event with a hollow white triangle. You can then use the Previous and Next buttons to jump from one event to the next.


Search step 3: The Search Mark table provides a tabular view of each of the events found by the automated search. Each event is shown with a time stamp making timing measurements between events easy.

Waveform analysis

Verifying that your prototype’s performance matches simulations and meets the project’s design goals requires analyzing its behavior. Tasks can range from simple checks of rise times and pulse widths to sophisticated power loss analysis and investigation of noise sources.

The oscilloscope offers a comprehensive set of integrated analysis tools including waveform- and screen-based cursors, automated measurements, advanced waveform math including arbitrary equation editing, FFT analysis, waveform histograms, and trend plots for visually determining how a measurement is changing over time.

Automated measurement readouts provide repeatable, statistical views of waveform characteristics.


Each measurement has help text and graphics associated with it that help explain how the measurement is made.

Waveform histograms show visually how waveforms vary over time. Horizontal waveform histograms are especially useful for gaining insight into how much jitter is on a clock signal, and what the distribution of that jitter is. Vertical histograms are especially useful for gaining insight into how much noise is on a signal, and what the distribution of that noise is.

Measurements taken on a waveform histogram provide analytical information about the distribution of a waveform histogram, providing insight into just how broad a distribution is, the amount of standard deviation, the mean value, etc.

Waveform histogram of a rising edge showing the distribution of edge position (jitter) over time. Included are numeric measurements made on the waveform histogram data.

Video design and development (Optional)

Many video engineers have remained loyal to analog oscilloscopes, believing the intensity gradations on an analog display are the only way to see certain video waveform details. The fast waveform capture rate, coupled with its intensity-graded view of the signal, provides the same information-rich display as an analog oscilloscope, but with much more detail and all the benefits of digital scopes.

Standard features such as IRE and mV graticules, holdoff by fields, video polarity, and an Autoset smart enough to detect video signals, make these the easiest to use oscilloscopes on the market for video applications. And with high bandwidth and four analog inputs, the oscilloscope provides ample performance for analog and digital video use.

The video functionality is further extended with an optional video application module, which provides the industry's most complete suite of HDTV and custom (nonstandard) video triggers, as well as a video picture mode enabling you to see the picture of the video signal you are viewing - for NTSC and PAL signals. The optional video analysis functionality is offered free for a 30- day trial period. This free trial period starts automatically when the instrument is powered on for the first time.

Viewing an NTSC video signal. Video picture mode contains automatic contrast and brightness settings as well as manual controls.

Power analysis (Optional)

Ever increasing consumer demand for longer battery-life devices and for green solutions that consume less power require power-supply designers to characterize and minimize switching losses to improve efficiency. In addition, the supply's power levels, output purity, and harmonic feedback into the power line must be characterized to comply with national and regional power quality standards. Historically, making these and many other power measurements on an oscilloscope has been a long, manual, and tedious process. The optional power analysis tools greatly simplify these tasks, enabling quick and accurate analysis of power quality, switching loss, harmonics, safe operating area (SOA), modulation, ripple, and slew rate (di/dt, dv/dt). Completely integrated into the oscilloscope, the power analysis tools provide automated, repeatable power measurements with a touch of a button; no external PC or complex software setup is required. The optional power analysis functionality is offered free for a 30- day trial period. This free trial period starts automatically when the instrument is powered on for the first time.

Power quality measurement. Automated power measurements enable quick and accurate analysis of common power parameters.

Spectral display of a bursted communication both into a device through Zigbee at 900 MHz and out of the device through Bluetooth at 2.4 GHz, captured with a single acquisition.

Spectrum traces

The MDO4000C Series spectrum analyzer offers four different traces or views including Normal, Average, Max Hold, and Min Hold. You can set the detection method used for each trace type independently or you can leave the oscilloscope in the default Auto mode that sets the detection type optimally for the current configuration. Detection types include +Peak, - Peak, Average, and Sample.

Normal, Average, Max Hold, and Min Hold spectrum traces

Triggered versus Free Run operation

When both the time and frequency domains are displayed, the spectrum shown is always triggered by the system trigger event and is time-synchronized with the active time-domain traces. However, when only the frequency domain is displayed, the spectrum analyzer can be set to Free Run. This is useful when the frequency domain data is continuous and unrelated to events occurring in the time domain.

Advanced triggering with analog, digital and spectrum analyzer channels

In order to deal with the time-varying nature of modern RF applications, the MDO4000C Series provides a triggered acquisition system that is fully integrated with the analog, digital and spectrum analyzer channels. This means that a single trigger event coordinates acquisition across all channels, allowing you to capture a spectrum at the precise point in time where an interesting time domain event is occurring. A comprehensive set of time domain triggers are available, including Edge, Sequence, Pulse Width, Timeout, Runt, Logic, Setup/Hold Violation, Rise/Fall Time, Video, and a variety of parallel and serial bus packet triggers. In addition, you can trigger on the power level of the spectrum analyzer input. For example, you can trigger on your RF transmitter turning on or off.

The optional MDO4TRIG application module provides advanced RF triggering. This module enables the RF power level on the spectrum analyzer to be used as a source for Sequence, Pulse Width, Timeout, Runt, and Logic trigger types. For example, you can trigger on a RF pulse of a specific length or use the spectrum analyzer channel as an input to a logic trigger, enabling the oscilloscope to trigger only when the RF is on while other signals are active.

RF measurements

The MDO4000C Series includes three automated RF measurements - Channel Power, Adjacent Channel Power Ratio, and Occupied Bandwidth. When one of these RF measurements is activated, the oscilloscope automatically turns on the Average spectrum trace and sets the detection method to Average for optimal measurement results.

Automated Channel Power measurement

EMI troubleshooting

EMC testing is expensive regardless of whether you purchase the equipment to perform in-house testing or you pay an external test facility to certify your product. And that assumes that your product passes the first time. Multiple visits to a test house can add significant cost and delay to your project. The key to minimizing this expense is early identification and debug of EMI issues. Traditionally, spectrum analyzers with near field probe sets have been used to identify the location and amplitude of offending frequencies, but their ability to determine the cause of the issue is very limited. Designers are increasingly using oscilloscopes and logic analyzers as EMI issues become more transient due to the complex interactions of numerous digital circuits in modern designs.

The MDO4000C, with its integrated oscilloscope, logic analyzer, and spectrum analyzer is the ultimate tool for debugging modern EMI issues. Many EMI problems are caused from events rooted in the time domain, such as clocks, power supplies, and serial data links. With its ability to provide time correlated views of analog, digital, and RF signals, the MDO4000C is the only instrument available that can discover the connection between time-domain events and offending spectral emissions.

RF probing

Signal input methods on spectrum analyzers are typically limited to cabled connections or antennas. But with the optional TPA-N-VPI adapter, any active, 50 Ω TekVPI probe can be used with the spectrum analyzer on the MDO4000C Series. This enables additional flexibility when hunting for noise sources and enables easier spectral analysis by using true signal browsing on an RF input.

In addition, an optional preamplifier accessory assists in the investigation of lower-amplitude signals. The TPA-N-PRE preamplifier provides 12 dB nominal gain across the 9 kHz - 6 GHz frequency range.

The optional TPA-N-VPI adapter enables any active, 50 Ω TekVPI probe to be connected to the RF input.

Visualizing changes in your RF signal

The time domain graticule on the MDO4000C Series display provides support for three RF time domain traces that are derived from the underlying I and Q data of the spectrum analyzer input including:

• Amplitude - The instantaneous amplitude of the spectrum analyzer input vs. time
• Frequency - The instantaneous frequency of the spectrum analyzer input, relative to the center frequency vs. time
• Phase - The instantaneous phase of the spectrum analyzer input, relative to the center frequency vs. time

Each of these traces may be turned on and off independently, and all three may be displayed simultaneously. RF time domain traces make it easy to understand what's happening with a time-varying RF signal.

The orange waveform in the Time Domain view is the frequency vs. time trace derived from the spectrum analyzer input signal. Notice that Spectrum Time is positioned during a transition from the highest frequency to the lowest frequency, so the energy is spread across a number of frequencies. With the frequency vs. time trace, you can easily see the different frequency hops, simplifying characterization of how the device switches between frequencies.

Advanced RF analysis

When paired with SignalVu-PC and its Live Link option, the MDO4000C Series becomes the industry's widest bandwidth Vector Signal Analyzer with up to 1 GHz capture bandwidth. Whether your design validation needs include Wireless LAN, wideband radar, high data rate satellite links, or frequency-hopping communications, SignalVu-PC vector signal analysis software can speed your time-to-insight by showing you the time-variant behavior of these wideband signals. Available analysis options include Wi- Fi (IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/j/n/p/ac) signal quality analysis, Bluetooth Tx compliance, pulse analysis, audio measurements, AM/FM/PM modulation analysis, general purpose digital modulation and more.

MDO4000C paired with SignalVu-PC to analyze 802.11ac modulation.

Time synchronized insights into Analog, Digital, and RF

The MDO4000C Series is the world's first oscilloscope with a built in spectrum analyzer. This integration enables you to continue to use your debug tool of choice, the oscilloscope, to investigate frequency domain issues rather than having to find and re-learn a spectrum analyzer.

However, the power of the MDO4000C Series goes well beyond simply observing the frequency domain as you would on a spectrum analyzer. The real power is in its ability to correlate events in the frequency domain with the time domain phenomena that caused them.

When both the spectrum analyzer and any analog or digital channels are on, the oscilloscope display is split into two views. The upper half of the display is a traditional oscilloscope view of the Time Domain. The lower half of the display is a Frequency Domain view of the spectrum analyzer input. Note that the Frequency Domain view is not simply an FFT of the analog or digital channels in the instrument, but is the spectrum acquired from the spectrum analyzer input.

Another key difference is that with traditional oscilloscope FFTs, you can typically either get the desired view of the FFT display, or the desired view of your other time domain signals of interest, but never both at the same time. This is because traditional oscilloscopes only have a single acquisition system with a single set of user settings such as record length, sample rate, and time per division that drive all data views. But with the MDO4000C Series, the spectrum analyzer has its own acquisition system that is independent, but time correlated, to the analog and digital channel acquisition systems. This allows each domain to be configured optimally, providing a complete time correlated system view of all analog, digital, and RF signals of interest.

The spectrum shown in the Frequency Domain view is taken from the period of time indicated by the short orange bar in the time domain view - known as the Spectrum Time. With the MDO4000C Series, Spectrum Time can be moved through the acquisition to investigate how the RF spectrum changes over time. And this can be done while the oscilloscope is live and running or on a stopped acquisition.

The upper half of the MDO4000C Series display shows the Time Domain view of the analog and digital channels, while the lower half shows the Frequency Domain view of the spectrum analyzer channel. The orange bar - Spectrum Time - shows the period of time used to calculate the RF spectrum.


1. Time and Frequency Domain view showing the turn-on of a PLL. Channel 1 (yellow) is probing a control signal that enables the VCO. Channel 2 (cyan) is probing the VCO tune voltage. The SPI bus which is programming the PLL with the desired frequency is probed with three digital channels and automatically decoded. Notice Spectrum Time is placed after the VCO was enabled and coincident with the command on the SPI bus telling the PLL the desired frequency of 2.400 GHz. Note that the RF is at 2.5564 GHz when the circuit turns on.


2. Spectrum Time is moved about 90 μs to the right. At this point, the spectrum shows that the PLL is in the process of tuning to the correct frequency (2.400 GHz). It has made it down to 2.4924 GHz.


3. Spectrum Time is moved another 160 μs to the right. At this point the spectrum shows that the PLL has actually overshot the correct frequency and gone all the way down to 2.3888 GHz.


4. The PLL eventually settles on the correct 2.400 GHz frequency about 320 μs after the VCO was enabled.

3- Arbitrary Function Generator-optional

The MDO4000C contains an optional integrated arbitrary function generator (option MDO4AFG), perfect for simulating sensor signals within a design or adding noise to signals to perform margin testing.

The integrated function generator provides output of predefined waveforms up to 50 MHz for sine, square, pulse, ramp/triangle, DC, noise, sin(x)/x (Sinc), Gaussian, Lorentz, exponential rise/fall, Haversine and cardiac.


Waveform type selection in the integrated AFG.

The arbitrary waveform generator provides 128 k points of record for storing waveforms from the analog input, a saved internal file location, a USB mass storage device, or from an external PC. Once a waveform is in the edit memory of the arbitrary waveform generator, it can be modified via an on-screen editor and then replicated out of the generator. The MDO4000C is compatible with Tektronix' ArbExpress PC-based waveform creation and editing software, making creation of complex waveforms fast and easy. Transfer waveform files to your MDO4000C edit memory via USB or LAN or using a USB mass storage device to be output from the AFG in the oscilloscope.


Arbitrary waveform editor showing the point-by-point editor.

4- Logic Analyzer (Optional)

The logic analyzer (option MDO4MSO) provides 16 digital channels which are tightly integrated into the oscilloscope's user interface. This simplifies operation and makes it possible to solve mixed-signal issues easily.

The MDO4000C Series provides 16 integrated digital channels enabling you to view and analyze time-correlated analog and digital signals.

Color-coded digital waveform display

Color-coded digital traces display ones in green and zeros in blue. This coloring is also used in the digital channel monitor. The monitor shows if signals are high, low, or are transitioning so you can see channel activity at a glance without having to clutter your display with unneeded digital waveforms.

The multiple transition detection hardware shows you a white edge on the display when the system detects multiple transitions. White edges indicate that more information is available by zooming in or acquiring at faster sampling rates. In most cases zooming in will reveal the pulse that was not viewable with the previous settings. If the white edge is still present after zooming in as far as possible, this indicates that increasing the sample rate on the next acquisition will reveal higher frequency information than the previous settings could acquire.

You can group digital waveforms and enter waveform labels by using a USB keyboard. By simply placing digital waveforms next to each other, they form a group.