Transistor-transistor logic (TTL) and complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) logic are the principal types of integrated circuit-based logic gates implemented in digital circuitry. TTL employs bipolar junction transistor technology while CMOS uses the field-effect transistor concept at the input. TTL consumes far more power than CMOS, which is one reason CMOS has eclipsed TTL as […]
FAQ
Making measurements on balanced transmission lines
Stray electrical fields are everywhere. They infiltrate signal transmitting and receiving devices as well as the transmission lines that connect them, taking the form of noise and unwanted signals. The effect is to raise the signal to noise ratio, obscuring desired analog and digital information. There are mitigation techniques, but to be effective they must […]
Basics of operating oscilloscope arbitrary waveform generators
An arbitrary function generator (AFG) produces oscillating energy that takes the form of periodic or one-shot waves. We should begin by asking: What is the difference between an AFG and an arbitrary waveform generator (AWG)? Also, what is meant in these contexts by “arbitrary?” Arbitrary as applied to waveform generation means that the user can […]
Avoiding electrical hazards in the lab and repair shop
There are three principle hazards in working with electrical equipment. Any of these can be lethal and cause injury or property loss. They are electrical shock, arc flash, and electrical fires. Electrical shock strikes without warning. It is immediate and instantaneous, but its effects may persist for years. Sometimes an individual exposed to electrical shock […]
Basics of manual and automatic oscilloscope measurements
Other than displaying electrical signals in real-time and stored in memory, an outstanding capability of our modern digital storage oscilloscope is to measure those signals automatically or manually and to display the results. Metrics can appear above and below the onscreen waveforms or separately in table format. The accuracy surpasses, by orders of magnitude, that […]
The basics of digital oscilloscope acquisition controls
Digital oscilloscopes are characterized by an acquisition menu, permitting the user to choose among modes and to select the record length, horizontal position and waveform, and to turn on or off Fast Acq, Delay and XY Display. We’ll look at each of these in turn. The essence of digitalization is that points comprising a waveform […]
Understanding and displaying the J operator
A plus times a plus is a plus. A plus times a minus is a minus. A minus times a plus is a minus. A minus times a minus is a plus. Because none of these operations results in a negative product, we must confront the hard reality that the square root of a negative […]
Precision and accuracy in oscilloscopes
The precision and accuracy of voltage measurements made with a digital scope are affected by the speed at which samples are taken, i.e. the sampling rate, and sampling depth or bit depth. Bit depth is just the number of bits of information in each sample, and it directly corresponds to the resolution of each sample. […]
Using the scope integration function to determine energy use
Integrals come in handy in measuring power consumption when that consumption is intermittent or corresponds to a dissipation vs. time function that is irregularly shaped. The classic example is that of a controller that wakes up every second or so. You can, of course, use single-shot capture to get the current waveform when the controller […]
Why the sky is blue: LiDAR puts a focus on measuring Raleigh scattering
Most people assume the sky is blue because through a process of refraction we see the higher-frequency, shorter-wavelength end of the spectrum. This explanation is incorrect. For one thing, if the entire sky is blue, what happened to the rest of the spectrum? It’s complicated. In actuality, the blue appearance of the sky and yellow […]
