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Keysight Technologies
Oscilloscope Display Quality Impacts
Ability to View Subtle Signal Details
Application Note
Introduction
The quality of your oscilloscope's display can make a big difference in your ability to troubleshoot your
designs effectively. If your oscilloscope has a low-quality display, you may not be able to see critical
signal anomalies. A scope that is capable of showing signal intensity gradations can reveal important
waveform details, including signal anomalies, in a wide variety of both analog and digital signal
applications.
Keysight Technologies, Inc. InfiiniVision oscilloscopes are engineered to give you the best signal
visibility. With MegaZoom IV technology, InfiniiVision scopes are able to capture up to 1,000,000
waveforms per second, showing you more subtle signal details and infrequent events than other
scopes.
The third dimension: intensity modulation
Engineers traditionally think of digital storage oscilloscopes (DSOs) as two-dimensional instruments
that graphically display voltage versus time. But there is actually a third dimension to a scope: the
z-axis. This third dimension shows continuous waveform intensity gradation as a function of the
frequency of occurrence of signals at particular X-Y locations. In analog oscilloscope technology,
intensity modulation is a natural phenomenon of the scope's vector-type display, which is swept with
an electron beam. Due to early limitations of digital display technology, this third dimension, intensity
modulation, was missing when digital oscilloscopes began replacing their analog counterparts.
Display intensity gradation can be extremely important when you are looking for signal anomalies,
especially when you are viewing complex-modulated analog signals such as video, read-write disk
head signals, and digitally controlled motor drive signals. Intensity gradation is also helpful in a wide
variety of mixed-signal applications found in embedded microprocessor and microcontroller
technologies common in the automotive, industrial, and consumer markets. But even when you are
viewing purely digital waveforms, intensity gradation can show statistical information about edge
jitter, vertical noise, and the relative occurrence of anomalies.
Recently, all major digital oscilloscope vendors have begun to provide z-axis intensity gradation