Oscilloscope Display Quality Impacts Ability to Uncover Signal Anomalies: Agilent 6000 Series Scope vs. Tektronix TDS3000 Series Scope

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.

This application note compares display quality for a variety of analog and digital signals using Agilent's 6000 Series mixed signal oscilloscope (MSO) and Tektronix' TDS3000 Series scope. In some examples, we also show the results displayed on a traditional analog oscilloscope. We also discuss a methodology for quantifying display quality to make it easier to compare scope displays objectively.