How do I use the mixed signal analysis function of the MDO3000?

Hello and welcome to Tektronix! Today I’m going to demonstrate the mixed signal capabilities of the MDO3000 series mixed domain oscilloscope.

Much like its MSO predecessor, the MDO3000 boasts a 16-channel logic analyzer in addition to its 4 analog inputs. The main digital acquisition system can capture up to 10M points with a timing resolution of 2 ns, or our high-resolution MagniVu mode can be used to capture 10k points with up to a 121ps timing resolution.

For this demo I’m looking at an 8-bit parallel digital signal that is being fed into a digital-to-analog converter and output as an analog signal. To capture the digital signal, I’m using the P6316 logic probe to connect to a 16-pin header on my test board. The probe has 2 groups, channels 0-7 and channels 8-15, and I’m connecting the first group to the header. To capture the analog signal, I’m using a TPP1000 1 GHz passive probe and connecting it to the output of the D/A converter.7

Channel 1 is activated by default, so just adjust the vertical position knob so that the waveform shows on the screen without clipping. To see the 8 digital channels, press the blue D15-0 button below the screen, press the D15-0 On/Off softkey, and select Turn on D7-D0. You can activate individual channels using the multipurpose knob A and the Display On/Off button.

To decode the parallel bus signal, stop the scope using the Run/Stop button, press the B1 button, make sure that Parallel is selected in the bus type, and select the define inputs softkey. This data is not clocked, so leave the Clocked Data set to No. This is an 8-bit signal, so use either the multipurpose knob A or the keypad to change the number of bits to 8. You can also define the bit position in the Define bits menu if necessary. When you’re in the Bus menu, you can change the position of the decoded bus values using the Multipurpose knob A. To view the decoded values, use the inner Wave Inspector knob to zoom in on the signal and use the outer Wave Inspector knob to pan around the captured record. You can change how the data is decoded in the Bus menu. Select the Bus Display softkey, and then you can toggle between hexadecimal and binary decoding schemes. You can also use the Event Table to view all the decoded values in tabular form. Select the Event Table softkey and then select the Event Table On/Off button to toggle the Event Table. The multipurpose knob A can be used to scroll through and select an event, and the Event Table can be exported as a .csv file if an external drive is mounted.

In addition to all its new features, the MDO3000 retains the powerful analog and digital capabilities that have been an integral part of the Tektronix portfolio.