Universidad Nueva Esparta

Ingeniera Electrnica
Daniel Herrera

En los osciloscopios digitales la seal es previamente digitalizada por un

conversor analgico digital, esto permite facilitar la transferencia de las
medidas realizadas a una computadora personal o una pantalla LCD. Como
es indispensable la fiabilidad de la medicin a la hora de analizarla este
componente, esta debe ser cuidada al mximo.
Los osciloscopios digitales cuentan con funciones nicas como es el
disparo anticipado (pre-triggering) para ver los eventos de corta duracin, o
la memorizacin del oscilograma para transferir las mediciones o datos a un
PC. Tambin existen osciloscopios que combinan etapas analgicas y
digitales.
La principal caracterstica de un osciloscopio digital es la velocidad de
muestreo, la misma determinara el ancho de banda mximo que puede medir
el instrumento basandose en el Teorema de Nyquist. Viene expresada en
MS/s (millones de samples /muestras/ por segundo).
La mayora de los osciloscopios digitales en la actualidad estn basados en
control por FPGA (del ingls Field Programmable Gate Array), el cual es el
elemento controlador del conversor analgico a digital de alta velocidad del
aparato y dems circuitera interna, como memoria, buffers, entre otros.
Estos osciloscopios aaden prestaciones y facilidades al usuario imposibles
de obtener con circuitera analgica, como los siguientes:

Medida automtica de valores de pico, mximos y mnimos de

seal. Verdadero valor eficaz.
Medida de flancos de la seal y otros intervalos.
Captura de transitorios.
Clculos avanzados, como la FFT para calcular el espectro de la seal.
tambin sirve para medir seales de tensin.

Osciloscopio de Fsforo Digital[editar]

El osciloscopio de fsforo digital (DPO, Digital Phosphor Oscilloscope) ofrece
una nueva propuesta a la arquitectura del osciloscopio ya que combina las
mejores caractersticas de un osciloscopio analgico con las de un
osciloscopio digital. Al igual que el osciloscopio analgico, el primer paso es
el amplificador vertical, y al igual que el osciloscopio digital, la segunda etapa
es un conversor ADC. Pero luego de la conversin de analgico a digital, el
osciloscopio de fsforo digital es un poco diferente al digital. Este tiene
funciones especiales diseadas para recrear el grado de intensidad de un
tubo de rayos catdicos. En vez de utilizar fsforo qumico, al igual que un
osciloscopio analgico, el DPO tiene fsforo digital que es una base de datos
actualizada constantemente. Esta base de datos tiene una celda separada
de informacin para cada uno de los pixeles que tiene la pantalla. Cada vez
que una forma de onda es capturada (en otras palabras, cada vez que el
osciloscopio es disparado) esta es almacenada en las celdas de la base de
datos. A cada celda que almacena la informacin de la forma de onda luego
se le inserta la informacin de la intensidad. Por ltimo toda la informacin es
mostrada en la pantalla LCD o almacenada por el osciloscopio.

An oscilloscope, previously called an oscillograph,[1][2] and informally known

as a scope, CRO (for cathode-ray oscilloscope), or DSO (for the more
modern digital storage oscilloscope), is a type of electronic test
instrument that allows observation of constantly varying signal voltages,
usually as a two-dimensional plot of one or more signals as a function of time.
Other signals (such as sound or vibration) can be converted to voltages and
displayed.
Oscilloscopes are used to observe the change of an electrical signal over
time, such that voltage and time describe a shape which is continuously
graphed against a calibrated scale. The observed waveform can be analyzed
for such properties as amplitude, frequency, rise time, time
interval, distortion and others. Modern digital instruments may calculate and
display these properties directly. Originally, calculation of these values
required manually measuring the waveform against the scales built into the
screen of the instrument.[3]
The oscilloscope can be adjusted so that repetitive signals can be observed
as a continuous shape on the screen. A storage oscilloscope allows single
events to be captured by the instrument and displayed for a relatively long
time, allowing observation of events too fast to be directly perceptible.
Oscilloscopes are used in the sciences, medicine, engineering, automotive
and the telecommunications industry. General-purpose instruments are used
for maintenance of electronic equipment and laboratory work. Special-
purpose oscilloscopes may be used for such purposes as analyzing an
automotive ignition system or to display the waveform of the heartbeat as
an electrocardiogram.
Before the advent of digital electronics, oscilloscopes used cathode ray
tubes (CRTs) as their display element (hence were commonly referred to as
CROs) and linear amplifiers for signal processing. Storage oscilloscopes used
special storage CRTs to maintain a steady display of a single brief signal.
CROs were later largely superseded by digital storage oscilloscopes (DSOs)
with thin panel displays, fast analog-to-digital converters and digital signal
processors. DSOs without integrated displays (sometimes known as
digitisers) are available at lower cost and use a general-purpose digital
computer to process and display waveforms.

A digital storage oscilloscope (often abbreviated DSO) is

an oscilloscope which stores and analyses the signal digitally rather than
using analogue techniques. It is now the most common type of oscilloscope in
use because of the advanced trigger, storage, display and measurement
features which it typically provides.[1]
The input analogue signal is sampled and then converted into a digital record
of the amplitude of the signal at each sample time. The sampling frequency
should be not less than the Nyquist rate to avoid aliasing. These digital values
are then turned back into an analogue signal for display on a cathode ray
tube (CRT), or transformed as needed for the various possible types of
outputliquid crystal display, chart recorder, plotter or network interface.[2]
Digital storage oscilloscope costs vary widely; bench-top self-contained
instruments (complete with displays) start at US$300 or even less, with high-
performance models selling for tens of thousands of dollars. Small, pocket-
size models, limited in function, may retail for as little as US$50. [3]

While analog devices make use of continually varying voltages, digital

devices employ binary numbers which correspond to samples of the voltage.
In the case of digital oscilloscopes, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is
used to change the measured voltages into digital information.

A Siglent SDS1000 Series Oscilloscope. A modern low cost DSO.

The digital storage oscilloscope, or DSO for short, is now the preferred type
for most industrial applications, although simple analog CROs are still used
by hobbyists. It replaces the electrostatic storage method used in analog
storage scopes with digital memory, which can store data as long as required
without degradation and with uniform brightness. It also allows complex
processing of the signal by high-speed digital signal processing circuits.[3]
A standard DSO is limited to capturing signals with a bandwidth of less than
half the sampling rate of the ADC (called the Nyquist limit). There is a
variation of the DSO called the digital sampling oscilloscope that can exceed
this limit for certain types of signal, such as high-speed communications
signals, where the waveform consists of repeating pulses. This type of DSO
deliberately samples at a much lower frequency than the Nyquist limit and
then uses signal processing to reconstruct a composite view of a typical
pulse. A similar technique, with analog rather than digital samples, was used
before the digital era in analog sampling oscilloscopes.[17][18]
A digital phosphor oscilloscope (DPO) uses color information to convey
information about a signal. It may, for example, display infrequent signal data
in blue to make it stand out. In a conventional analog scope, such a rare trace
may not be visible.