19 Jul Rohde & Schwarz sets new records in acquisition rates with the introduction of the first ASIC-based zone triggering for MXO oscilloscopes.
Rohde & Schwarz enhances its oscilloscope lineup with the launch of the industry’s first ASIC-based zone-triggering technology. This innovative method enables the MXO series to achieve an unparalleled zone trigger update rate of up to 600.000 waveforms per second, with a blind time of less than 1.45 microseconds between trigger events. This performance is up to 10.000 times faster than competitor’s zone triggering solutions. The introduction of ASIC-based zone triggering allows MXO oscilloscopes to accurately isolate events that conventional triggering methods may not adequately address.
Zone triggering used to trigger on a specific RF chirp lenght in the time domain and when the chirp exceeds a certain power level in the frequency domain (Ph. Rohde&Schwarz)
Rohde & Schwarz has introduced the first ASIC-based zone triggering technology in the new MXO series oscilloscopes. This innovative feature significantly improves the oscilloscopes’ capability to accurately identify events that are challenging or unfeasible to capture using conventional oscilloscope triggers. Additionally, the zone trigger implementation in the MXO series is the fastest in the industry, exceeding the performance of competitors by several orders of magnitude.
Traditional oscilloscope trigger types, such as edge triggering, can often be challenging to configure and may not adequately capture certain trigger events. In contrast, zone triggering enables users to define trigger conditions by delineating one or more zones on the oscilloscope’s display. The instrument then evaluates each acquisition against these specified conditions, displaying only those acquisitions that fulfill the graphical criteria. If an acquisition does not satisfy the defined conditions, the corresponding waveform is discarded and not presented. Zone triggering proves to be particularly effective for capturing non-monotonic edges, serial bus patterns, mathematical waveforms, events spanning multiple channels, and occurrences in the frequency domain. In these scenarios, traditional oscilloscope triggers fall short. The innovative zone triggering feature from Rohde & Schwarz represents the world’s first ASIC-based solution capable of operating on analog channel signals, mathematical data, and spectrum analysis.
Philip Diegmann, Vice President Oscilloscopes at Rohde & Schwarz, says: “The next-generation MXO-EP processing ASIC technology developed by Rohde & Schwarz is the foundation of the breakthrough signal visibility and user responsiveness of the MXO series. The chip design was laid out to have further hardware acceleration capabilities enabled down the road. This way we keep providing new functionalities to our oscilloscope customers never before seen in the industry. With MXO zone triggering, users obtain additional triggering capabilities without having to incur significant trigger blind times that historically have diminished the value of software-based zone triggering solutions.”
Power line measurements with zone triggers to isolate power-consuming events during RF transmissions
The introduction of the MXO zone triggering feature allows users engaged in frequency domain testing and debugging with an oscilloscope to delineate specific zone areas. The oscilloscope will subsequently trigger or activate when a designated tone surpasses a predetermined power level within these defined zones. Additionally, users have the option to create zones specifically for RF chirps or pulses. A novel aspect of the MXO is its free run mode, which enables the oscilloscope to capture data at maximum speed without the necessity of detecting an edge trigger event. The combination of this mode with zone triggering proves to be highly effective for power integrity assessments and electromagnetic interference (EMI) troubleshooting.
The MXO zone triggering system introduces an innovative feature that has not been available in the market before: the capability to store waveforms in real time that align with zone trigger criteria. This functionality allows users to concentrate solely on particular events that are pertinent to their applications.
Rohde & Schwarz has introduced a new ASIC-based zone triggering capability as a standard feature across all MXO 4, MXO 5, and MXO 5C series oscilloscopes, starting with firmware version 2.2. It can be downloaded free of charge from the website: MXO4-FW, MXO5-FW, MXO5C-FW.
