8-channel, 12-bit oscilloscopes push up to 1GHz

The target market for the new oscilloscopes is high-power three-phase power electronics system analysis. As Teledyne LeCroy sees it the scopes are addressing a global market for power electronics that is growing quickly, especially in high-power and three-phase energy conversion applications focused on distributed power generation (solar PV, wind, etc.) and hybrid electric and electric (HEV and EV) vehicle propulsion systems. New and expanded efficiency requirements for electric motors and variable frequency (motor) drives are also driving higher demand for three-phase power electronics.

The company also contends that 8-channel high-definition oscilloscopes are highly useful in debugging deeply embedded systems in applications such as automotive electronic control units (ECUs), consumer appliances (e.g. washing machines, refrigerators) and industrial systems (e.g. robotics) that contain a complex mix of power electronic, power, clock, digital logic, serial data, and analog sensor signals. More channels and more resolution provide faster insight into embedded system behavior.

The high definition technology is rooted in high-sample-rate 12-bit ADCs; amplifiers with high signal-to-noise ratios; and a low-noise system architecture. This technology enables high definition oscilloscopes to capture and display signals of up to 1 GHz with high sample rate and 16 times more resolution than other oscilloscopes. In addition the oscilloscopes feature Teledyne LeCroy’s ERES (Enhanced Resolution) filtering, which enables users to gain up to three additional bits of resolution for 15-bit vertical resolution.

A new Q-Scape multi-tabbed display provides four times the display area and better organization of large numbers of channel, zoom and math waveforms (up to 40 total) on the oscilloscope’s 12.1in WXGA high-resolution display. Four “tabbed” displays are provided. Waveforms can be simply dragged and dropped to the desired location to conveniently organise the many different acquired and calculated waveforms for more intuitive analysis. Q-Scape is especially helpful in three-phase system analysis as each phase can be displayed on a dedicated tab.

For those desiring a larger display area and even higher display resolution, the HDO8000 supports extended-desktop operation with a WQXGA (3840x2160 pixels) DisplayPort 1.2 video output. Q-Scape tabbed displays may then be viewed on a larger display while another program (e.g. MATLAB) is viewed on the smaller oscilloscope display.

The oscilloscopes are standard with 50 Mpts/ch of acquisition memory with options for 100 Mpt or 250 Mpt/ch. These long acquisition memory options are ideal for power electronics and embedded/mechatronic systems where high-speed microprocessor signals may be captured coincidentally with lower speed pulse-width modulated (PWM), serial data, or analogue sensor signals. The Teledyne LeCroy deep toolbox is provided for statistical, frequency and time-domain analysis using Tracks, Trends, Histograms and a variety of other math and measurement capabilities. Tracks are particularly useful for PWM analysis. A variety of other application-based software options are available.

An Intel Core i5-4670s Quad (core) motherboard with 8GB of RAM provides fast and efficient processing of acquired channels and calculated waveforms, and additional capability when third-party programs are run on the oscilloscope. The motherboard is upgraded to 32GB of RAM with the 100 Mpt and 250 Mpt/ch memory options.

Models are available at 350 MHz (HDO8038), 500 MHz (HDO8058), and 1 GHz (HDO8108) of bandwidth. Teledyne LeCroy expects to begin customer shipments of HDO8000 models in August of 2014.