Constant improvement is at the heart of engineering. From computers and cars to bridges and buildings, the goal of an engineer is to make it faster, stronger, more accurate, more efficient than before. As engineers ourselves, we’re constantly looking for ways we can improve and upgrade our own products. The brand new 6 Series B Mixed Signal Oscilloscope is a perfect example. Read on to learn 4 key upgrades we’ve made compared to the original 6 Series MSO.

1) More Channels

Having more channels allows you to test more signals faster. Engineers working with multiple high-speed serial signals and power rails in particular will benefit from the higher channel count available on the new 6 Series B. While the original 6 Series offers 4 FlexChannel™ signal inputs, the new 6 Series B can include 6 or even 8 FlexChannel inputs. Each FlexChannel promotes the versatility of your scope by acting as a single analog (and RF spectrum) input or 8 digital inputs, letting you easily adapt to a variety of tasks.

A 6 Series B MSO with eight input channels plus auxiliary input

2) Higher Bandwidth and Sampling Rate

As technology continues to evolve, signal speeds are rising in a variety of applications. Wide Personal Area Networks (WPAN), for example, have an operating range from 7-9 GHz. And automotive buses are moving massive amounts of data at higher speeds than ever due to powerful inputs like radar, lidar, and video. All these increases in signal speed are demanding more and more bandwidth. That’s why we’ve increased the maximum bandwidth in the new 6 Series B MSO from 8 GHz to 10 GHz.

But we didn’t stop there—we’ve also increased the sample rate. In the original 6 Series, the maximum sample rate on 4 channels is 25 GS/s. The new 6 Series B allows for 50 GS/s sampling when using 2 channels. This lets you effectively borrow some of the sample rate from another channel so you can further decrease intrinsic noise.

3) Lower Noise

Speaking of decreasing noise—the 6 Series B MSO has optimized two key pieces of hardware in its input path to promote even higher signal fidelity. For high bandwidth and high sensitivity applications, we’ve used the TEK061 pre-amp to reduce noise when viewing small signals. For larger signals, the Analog-to-Digital converter is the more relevant source of noise. So we also optimized our TEK049 acquisition ASICs to reduce noise.

As an example—when performing power integrity measurements, having too much noise on the power rail caused by the measurement equipment can make it difficult to observe signals of interest. But combined with our specialized power rail probe, the 6 Series B’s optimized input paths offer the lowest inherent noise in the market. It’s a scope designed to let you accurately observe small signal details that would have otherwise been obscured.

Low instrument noise helps accurately assess noise on power rails in the device under test

4) More Security

When conducting tests or measurements that are confidential in nature, it can be challenging to keep your data secure if you need to move your instrument outside of your lab. The 6 Series B removes that challenge by storing all user data on a removable, solid-state drive. So, whether you’re involved in developing military technology or working on a new product in a competitive market, you can safely send your scope in for calibration or move it outside of your secure lab without fear of compromising sensitive data.

A removable solid-state drive stores all user data

For more information on the new 6 Series B Mixed Signal Oscilloscope, or more oscilloscopes. If you have any questions about the new product, please get in touch with us from our contact page.