PicoScope-6000-Series

Arbitrary waveform and function generator

import arbitrary waveforms from data files or create and modify them using the built-in graphical AWG editor.

Spectrum analyzer With the click of a button, you can open a new window to display a spectrum plot of selected channels up to the full bandwidth of the oscilloscope. The spectrum view can optionally be displayed together with a time-domain view. A comprehensive range of settings give you control over the number of spectrum bands, window types and display modes.

Color persistence modes

See old and new data superimposed, with new data in a brighter color or shade. This makes it easy to see glitches and dropouts and to estimate their relative frequency. Choose between analog persistence, digital color or custom display modes.

Mask limit testing

This feature is designed for production and debugging environments. Capture a signal from a known working system, and picoScope will draw a mask around it with your specified vertical and horizontal tolerances. Connect the system under test, and PicoScope will highlight any parts of the waveform that fall outside the mask area. The highlighted details persist on the display, so the scope can catch intermittent glitches even while your attention is elsewhere. The measurements window counts the number of failures, and can display other measurements and statistics at the same time.

The numerical and graphical mask editors (both shown below) can be used separately

or in combination, allowing you to enter accurate mask specifications or modify existing masks. You can import and export masks as files.

High-speed data acquisition

The drivers and software development kit supplied allow you to write your own software or interface to popular third-party software packages. If the 2 GS buffer memory of the picoScope 6404D isn’t enough, the drivers support data streaming, a mode that captures gap-free continuous data over the USB 3.0 port directly to the PC’s RAM at over 150 MS/s and to solid-state disk at up to 78 MS/s. Rates are subject to PC specifications and application loading.

Serial data decoding

well-suited to serial decoding, with a deep memory buffer that allows them to collect long, uninterrupted sequences of data. This allows the capture of thousands of frames or packets of data over several seconds. The scopes can decode up to four buses simultaneously with independent protocol selection for each input channel.

PicoScope displays the decoded data in the format of your choice: in view, in window, or both at once.

• In view format shows the decoded data beneath the waveform on a common time axis, with error frames marked in red. You can zoom in on these frames to look for noise or distortion on the waveform.
• In window format shows a list of the decoded frames, including the data and all flags and identifiers. You can set up filtering conditions to display only the frames you are interested in, search for frames with specified properties, or define a start pattern that the program will wait for before it lists the data.

Analog and digital low-pass filtering

Each input channel has its own digital low-pass filter with independently adjustable cut-off frequency from 1 Hz to the full

scope bandwidth. This enables you to reject noise on selected channels while viewing high-bandwidth signals on the others.

An additional selectable analog bandwidth limiter on each input channel can be used to reject high frequencies that would otherwise cause aliasing.

Digital triggering Most digital oscilloscopes sold today still use an analog trigger architecture based on comparators. This can cause time and

amplitude errors that cannot always be calibrated out. The use of comparators often limits the trigger sensitivity at high bandwidths. In 1991 pico pioneered the use of fully digital triggering using the

actual digitized data. This technique reduces trigger errors and allows our oscilloscopes to trigger on the smallest signals, even at the full bandwidth. Trigger levels and hysteresis can be set with high precision and resolution.

Digital triggering also reduces re-arm delay and this, combined with the segmented memory, allows the triggering and capture of events that happen in rapid sequence. At the fastest timebase you can use rapid triggering to collect 10,000 waveforms in under 10 milliseconds. The mask limit testing function can then scan through these waveforms to highlight any failed waveforms for viewing in the waveform buffer.

Advanced triggers As well as the standard range of triggers found on most oscilloscopes, the PicoScope 6000 Series has a built-in set of advanced triggers to help you capture the data you need.

All triggering is digital, resulting in high threshold resolution with programmable hysteresis and optimal waveform stability.

Maths channels With picoScope 6 you can perform a variety of mathematical calculations on your input signals. You can calculate the sum, difference, product or inverse, or create your own custom function using standard arithmetic, exponential and trigonometric functions.

Automatic measurements

PicoScope allows you to automatically display a table of calculated measurements for troubleshooting and analysis.Using the built-in measurement statistics you can see the average,

standard deviation, maximum and minimum of each measurement

as well as the live value. You can add as many measurements as you need on each view. Each measurement includes statistical parameters showing its variability.

For information on the measurements available in scope and spectrum modes, see Automatic Measurements in theSpecifications table.

High signal integrity

Most oscilloscopes are built down to a price; ours are built up to a specification. Our engineers use careful front-end design and shielding to

reduce noise, crosstalk and harmonic distortion. With decades of oscilloscope experience, we know how to design for optimal pulse response and bandwidth flatness.

Hardware acceleration On some oscilloscopes, enabling deep memory has a penalty: the screen update rate slows down and the controls become unresponsive as the processor struggles to cope with the amount of data. Thanks to the hardware acceleration inside picoScope deep-memory oscilloscopes, you can collect waveforms containing hundreds of millions of samples while keeping fast screen update rates and a responsive user interface. Dedicated hardware inside the oscilloscope processes multiple streams of data in parallel to construct the waveform that will be displayed on the screen. This is done far faster than any PC processor could manage, and together with USB 3.0 SuperSpeed data transfer eliminates any bottlenecks between the oscilloscope and the PC. For example, the scope may be set to capture 100 000 000 samples but the PicoScope display window may be only 1000 pixels wide. In this case, the scope intelligently compresses the data into 1000 blocks of 100 000 samples each. Unlike simple decimation, which throws away most of the data, PicoScope hardware acceleration guarantees that you see any high-frequency details such as narrow glitches, even when the display is zoomed out.

High-end features as standard Buying a scope from some companies is a bit like buying a car. By the time you have added all the optional extras you need, the price has gone up considerably. With the picoScope 6000 Series, high-end features such as mask limit testing, serial decoding, advanced triggering, measurements, math, XY mode, digital

filtering, segmented memory and even a signal generator are all included in the price. To protect your investment, both the PC software and firmware

inside the unit can be updated. We have a long history of providing new features for free as software downloads. Other companies make vague promises about future enhancements but we deliver on our promises year after year. Users of our products reward us by becoming lifelong customers, frequently recommending us to their colleagues.

Probes included Your PicoScope 6000 Series scope is supplied complete with four wideband, high-impedance probes. These probes have been designed for use with individual models of the PicoScope 6000 Series and are factory-compensated to match each scope’s input characteristics. Each high-quality probe is supplied with a

range of accessories for convenient and accurate high-frequency measurements. A comprehensive range of alternative probes is also available.

Probe specifications TA150 TA133