MeanandaveragevoltagesOscilloscopescancalculatetheaverageormeanofyoursignal,

anditcanalsotellyoutheaverageofyoursignalsminimumandmaximumvoltage.

WhentoUseanOScope
Theoscopeisusefulinavarietyoftroubleshootingandresearchsituations,including:
Determiningthefrequencyandamplitudeofasignal,whichcanbecriticalindebuggingacircuitsinput,
output,orinternalsystems.Fromthis,youcantellifacomponentinyourcircuithasmalfunctioned.
Identifyinghowmuchnoiseisinyourcircuit.
Identifyingtheshapeofawavesine,square,triangle,sawtooth,complex,etc.
Quantifyingphasedifferencesbetweentwodifferentsignals.

OscilloscopeLexicon
Learninghowtouseanoscilloscopemeansbeingintroducedtoanentirelexiconofterms.Onthispagewell
introducesomeoftheimportantoscopebuzzwordsyoushouldbefamiliarwithbeforeturningoneon.

KeyOscilloscopeSpecifications
Somescopesarebetterthanothers.Thesecharacteristicshelpdefinehowwellyoumightexpectascopeto
perform:
BandwidthOscilloscopesaremostcommonlyusedtomeasurewaveformswhichhaveadefined
frequency.Noscopeisperfectthough:theyallhavelimitsastohowfasttheycanseeasignalchange.
Thebandwidthofascopespecifiestherangeoffrequenciesitcanreliablymeasure.
Digitalvs.AnalogAswithmosteverythingelectronic,oscopescaneitherbeanalogordigital.Analog
scopesuseanelectronbeamtodirectlymaptheinputvoltagetoadisplay.Digitalscopesincorporate
microcontrollers,whichsampletheinputsignalwithananalogtodigitalconverterandmapthatreading
tothedisplay.Generallyanalogscopesareolder,havealowerbandwidth,andlessfeatures,butthey
mayhaveafasterresponse(andlookmuchcooler).
ChannelAmountManyscopescanreadmorethanonesignalatatime,displayingthemallonthe
screensimultaneously.Eachsignalreadbyascopeisfedintoaseparatechannel.Twotofourchannel
scopesareverycommon.
SamplingRateThischaracteristicisuniquetodigitalscopes,itdefineshowmanytimesperseconda
signalisread.Forscopesthathavemorethanonechannel,thisvaluemaydecreaseifmultiplechannels
areinuse.
RiseTimeThespecifiedrisetimeofascopedefinesthefastestrisingpulseitcanmeasure.Therise
timeofascopeisverycloselyrelatedtothebandwidth.Itcanbecalculatedas RiseTime = 0.35 /
Bandwidth .
MaximumInputVoltageEverypieceofelectronicshasitslimitswhenitcomestohighvoltage.Scopes
shouldallberatedwithamaximuminputvoltage.Ifyoursignalexceedsthatvoltage,theresagood
chancethescopewillbedamaged.
ResolutionTheresolutionofascoperepresentshowpreciselyitcanmeasuretheinputvoltage.This
valuecanchangeastheverticalscaleisadjusted.
VerticalSensitivityThisvaluerepresentstheminimumandmaximumvaluesofyourvertical,voltage
scale.Thisvalueislistedinvoltsperdiv.
TimeBaseTimebaseusuallyindicatestherangeofsensitivitiesonthehorizontal,timeaxis.Thisvalue
islistedinsecondsperdiv.
InputImpedanceWhensignalfrequenciesgetveryhigh,evenasmallimpedance(resistance,
capacitance,orinductance)addedtoacircuitcanaffectthesignal.Everyoscilloscopewilladdacertain