An Oscilloscope is a complex electronic laboratory instrument commonly used to capture, measure, display and analyse the waveform and bandwidth of electronic signals. The device draws a graph of the instantaneous signal voltage as a function of time. You can learn more in our oscilloscope guide.

Oscilloscope types

The biggest distinction is whether they are digital or analogue oscilloscopes. Within the digital oscilloscopes area, there are several different types.

• Digital Oscilloscopes: Basic type, has several capabilities from a processing basic waveforms to advance triggering.
• Storage Oscilloscope (DSO): Has a memory to store waveforms and display them for a period of time.
• Phosphor Oscilloscopes (DPO): use a parallel processing architecture to enable it to capture and display signals.
• Digital Sampling Oscilloscopes: Used for analysing high-frequency signals for example up to 50 GHz.
• Mixed Domain Oscilloscope (MDO): Can operate in more than one domain, i.e., in time to display waveforms and in frequency to display signal spectra.
• Mixed Signal Oscilloscope (MSO): Combines an oscilloscope function with that of a logic analyser.
• Analogue Oscilloscopes: Use cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) to display basic waveforms

How does a digital oscilloscope work?

The oscilloscope is a graph-displaying instrument. It draws a graph of an electrical signal. In most applications the graph shows how signals change over time, the vertical (Y) axis represents voltage, and the horizontal (X) axis represents time. Some oscilloscopes feature additional user-friendly elements such as USB ports for downloading measurement data.

In its simplest form, a digital oscilloscope features six elements:

• Analogue vertical input amplifiers
• Analogue-to-digital converter and a digital waveform memory
• Time base which features a triggering and clock drive
• Circuits for waveform display and reconstruction
• LED or LCD display
• Power supply

How to choose the best oscilloscopes?

Oscilloscopes and picoscopes are widely used in industry and there are many different types each having their own characteristics. For example, the small, lightweight handheld digital oscilloscopes are ideal for technicians working in service, maintenance, and installation applications. This means that different oscilloscope types are applicable for different applications and choosing the correct type enables it to perform to its best and therefore gain the most from it.