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???
05/22/07 17:59
Modified:
  05/22/07 18:16

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#139632 - tricks & tricks
Responding to: ???'s previous message
There is nothing wrong in sampling a repeated signal - I remember a scope my professor was using during my PhD study, he made some laser chips and this one was able to sample and display on a persistent screen (fully analog) nice waveform of the laser output, being modulated with some ns pulses - all made in USSR somewhere deep in the 70s, too... :-) I was SHOCKED.

The bad thing is, if this figure is the BIGGEST NUMBER written on the box, with the sub-mm explanation text far far below...

---

But it's not only the superfast ADC which makes a fast DSO. A measurement is only as good as the weakest chain of it. A bad connector or cable can spoil everything.

Also, there are tricks how to make fast sampling yet use relatively slow ADCs; mostly based on a fast set of sample-and-hold circuits and a well-thought clock and signal distribution (propagation) across them. Massive parallelism is one of those, simply having an array of relatively slow ADCs, all connected to one S/H output. Or, a CCD-like scheme can be employed, the S/H being then basically analog memories containing the samples. This all allows to achieve GSps sampling rates on silicon, without need to resort to exotic III-V semiconductor technologies.

But the scheme I liked the most was a CRT-like screen, where the input was applied to the electron beam modulation, and the acquired waveform was "stored" as a single sweep into the slowly decaying light output of the CRT phosphor (luminophore), being read out by a conventional CCD array...

JW

PS. Rob, don't you happen to be around Tilburg by the last weekend of August?

List of 20 messages in thread
TopicAuthorDate
[OT] DSO- How it's made ?            01/01/70 00:00      
   look at ADC spec's.            01/01/70 00:00      
      in other words,            01/01/70 00:00      
         Not quite            01/01/70 00:00      
            tricks & tricks            01/01/70 00:00      
               Analog memories...            01/01/70 00:00      
               that's what the analog 'scope does!            01/01/70 00:00      
   Some interesting reading from Maxim            01/01/70 00:00      
   I have no doubt you can            01/01/70 00:00      
      use for what            01/01/70 00:00      
   Expansion slot test equipment            01/01/70 00:00      
      there is now a plethora of such with USB            01/01/70 00:00      
         crappy GUI            01/01/70 00:00      
            I prefer the "feel" of manually controlled gear            01/01/70 00:00      
         Can't be done, or just hasn't been done?            01/01/70 00:00      
            there's no reason it couldn't            01/01/70 00:00      
               The PeeCee would get in the way            01/01/70 00:00      
                  not only...            01/01/70 00:00      
                     a few buttons, dials, and knobs, but not enough            01/01/70 00:00      
   Critics and suggestions invited - 1GHz sampler            01/01/70 00:00      

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