Selection Requirements to Establish
Work through what you can. Anything still undecided is exactly what a conversation with our engineers is for.
01The signal you are measuring
- Fastest edge (rise time) rather than clock frequency — the edge sets the bandwidth you need
- Highest frequency component that must be reproduced faithfully
- Amplitude range, and whether any input rides on a large offset
- Whether the signal repeats, or is a single event you get one chance to capture
02Acquisition and analysis
- Analogue channels, and any digital channels for mixed-signal work
- Sample rate available per channel when all channels are active
- Record length — capture duration multiplied by sample rate
- Trigger conditions: edge, pulse width, runt, timeout or serial pattern
- Serial buses to decode (I²C, SPI, UART, CAN, LIN, USB)
- Measurements and maths needed: FFT, jitter, power analysis, mask testing
03Probing and connection
- Passive, active, differential or current probing
- Probe loading the circuit can tolerate at the frequency of interest
- Isolation requirements when measuring above ground potential
- Remote control and automation interface (USB, LAN, SCPI, API)
- Whether measurements must be logged, exported or scripted