Calibrator automates oscilloscope calibrations on four channels

Fluke’s 9500C oscilloscope calibrator with remote heads streamlines oscilloscope calibration from the front panel and through PC software.

If you’ve ever calibrated an oscilloscope or watched a technician calibrate one, you know that it can take considerable time to perform. As oscilloscopes add more features and thus more menus, calibration time gets longer. Calibration involves more than simply using a DC voltage. It takes AV voltages and thus frequency. Furthermore, oscilloscopes also need calibration with pulses and their rising edges.

The Model 9500C high-performance oscilloscope calibrator from Fluke Calibration lets you calibrate up to four oscilloscope channels through the company’s 9450C remote heads. Calibration signals generated at the heads eliminate losses and reflections caused by cables. A fifth channel provides a trigger signal for the oscilloscope. Fluke offers the remote heads separately so if you don’t need to calibrate four-channel oscilloscopes, you don’t need to purchase four heads. If you need other calibration signals, you can use the calibrator’s auxiliary input, which passes the signal directly to the remote heads.

Each remote head can generate DC voltages up to 20 V (1 MΩ input) or 5 V (50 Ω input). For AC calibration, the instrument generates signals up to 4.2 GHz. It also produces square waves of 10 Hz to 100 kHz ranging from 4.44 mV to 5.56 V. Edge output ranges from 5 mV to 3 V (pk-pk) at 125 ps into 50 Ω and 500 ps into 1 MΩ.

Because oscilloscope calibration is a time-consuming and tedious process, the 9500C lets you automate calibration steps because it can calibrate four channels at once. For full automation, you can use Fluke’s MET/CAL software.

You can control the 9500C through its USB, GPIB, or LAN ports. Three USB posts let you load calibration constants and get date without connecting directly to a PC.