Oscilloscopes take centre stage at embedded world

The high-performance oscilloscopes of the R&S RTP family combine exceptional signal integrity with a high update rate and multiple instrument capabilities. The whisper-quiet oscilloscopes acquire up to 1 million waveforms per second and perform realtime de-embedding to correct transmission losses between the signal source and the oscilloscope. This correction is usually made by filtering the acquired waveforms during postprocessing. With conventional oscilloscopes, this requires a great deal of patience on the part of the user. In contrast, with the R&S RTP, the correction can also be made using flexible filter structures directly after the A/D converters. With that approach, the R&S RTP displays the waveforms without transmission losses, i.e. as they appear at the DUT output; there is no time wasted with lengthy calculations during postprocessing.

All these features combine to make the R&S RTP the oscilloscope of choice for debugging – for example when testing electronic systems or highly integrated electronic circuits with high-speed digital or wideband RF interfaces. The oscilloscope comes in three models with different bandwidths: 4GHz, 6GHz and 8GHz.

Another highlight is the new R&S RTx-K36 software option for the RTB2000, RTM3000 and RTA4000 oscilloscopes. It can be used to measure the transfer function of active and passive DUTs in terms of gain and phase in the frequency range from 10Hz to 25MHz. The oscilloscope's integrated arbitrary waveform generator delivers the stimulus signal. Results, i.e. the gain and phase versus frequency, are plotted as Bode diagrams.

The R&S RTx-K36 is especially useful for switched-mode power supplies in order to measure and tune the control loop response and the power supply rejection ratio (PSRR). The amplitude and phase margins can be read directly from the Bode plots.

Rohde & Schwarz has re-engineered its power meter portfolio and will present its R&S NRX at embedded world. The power meter base unit offers up to four measurement channels and a touch GUI. The R&S NRX even supports triggered and synchronised multichannel measurements, including with a combination of terminating and directional power sensors. Users can connect a wide variety of thermal and diode based terminated power sensors to the R&S NRX ports, as well as the frequency selective R&S NRQ6 power sensor. The R&S NRQ6 is the only power sensor of its kind to deliver high-precision, high-speed measurements down to –130dBm.

It can perform band-limited power measurements, i.e. power measurements on selected transmission channels, as well as trace measurements on steep-edged pulses, and is also perfect for adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) measurements, a common mobile communications application.

A premiere will be given to the R%S NGL200 power supply series at embedded world. Featuring high accuracy and fast load recovery times, the R&S NGL200 power supplies are perfect for challenging applications in mobile communications and the internet of things (IoT). Their two-quadrant architecture allows them to function both as a source and a sink. Their short recovery times of less than 30 µs enable them to handle fast load changes that occur for example when a device switches from sleep mode to transmit mode. The R&S NGL200 power supplies also feature minimum residual ripple and low noise.

With up to 6 ½ digits resolution, they eliminate the need for an additional digital multimeter in many applications. The single-channel R&S NGL201 and the two-channel R&S NGL202 deliver up to 60 W of output power per channel. The output channels are floating, galvanically isolated and protected against overload and short circuits.

The power supplies also set new standards with their capacitive touchscreens and large, high-contrast displays. Temperature-controlled fans ensure extremely quiet operation. Extensive safety functions safeguard the DUT and the power supply in the event of a fault.