Oscilloscope features fast data transfer, 10-bit ADC

The Series 7 DPO oscilloscope from Tektronix is the company’s first new high-end model in years. It uses an optical port to transfer data faster than anything we’ve seen.

Oscilloscope announcements come often, but most are for low-end. And midrange models. The Series 7 from Tektronix datasheet clearly fits into the high end, though it’s not quite at the very top.

With bandwidths from 8 GHz to 25 GHz (field upgradable), the Series 7 isn’t the company’s highest-bandwidth oscilloscope. Those are reserved for signal-integrity measurements at the highest data rates. Series 7, which Tektronix calls the Series 7 DPO, addresses the need for many RF and digital-data-stream measurements. Sample rate is 125 Gsamples/sec across all four channels. Effective number of bits ranges from 7.5 at 8GHz bandwidth to to 6.5 at 25 GHz.

The search feature lets you identify where the oscilloscope triggers through a long waveform and display a list of trigger points that meet specified parameters.

While the Series 7 features many of the measurement and math functions found in previous Tektronix oscilloscopes, it also lets you search through long waveforms using criteria that you set. For example, the oscilloscope can point you to occurrences such as pulse width, amplitude, rise time, and so on. It displays those occurrences by highlighting them, and it can create tables showing you when such triggered conditions occurred.

Tektronix has developed a feature that it calls “Stacked Display Mode.” In short, Stacked Display Mode lets you see all waveforms where each uses the full 10 bits of the instrument’s analog-to-digital converters. In this instance, each waveform displayed represents the full dynamic range regardless of how you move the displayed waveforms. You can add physical, math, or other waveforms onto the screen by dragging what Tektronix calls a “badge” to the bottom bar on the display.

The Series 7 DPO features an SFP+ optical port for data transfer up to 10 Gb/sec.

Often, you’d like to see what your oscilloscope is measuring when you don’t have access to it. That’s where Ethernet comes in. While most oscilloscopes have featured Ethernet ports for years, the Series 7 takes communications to the next level by adding an optical SFP+ port. Having an optical connection significantly speeds data transfer over copper connections. Tektronix calls this feature “TekHSI.” With it, you can achieve data-transfer rates up to 10 Gb/sec. That ten times what you can get from a copper cable. To control the instrument, TekHSI lets you write scripts in C# or Python and bypass the slower SCPI commands and instrument drivers usually associated with remote instrument control. You can connect other physical links to the SFP+ port using adapters.

The oscilloscope uses an embedded Linux operating system installed on a solid-state drive. If you need to run Windows apps, you can opt for an SSD with Windows 10 installed. That seems odd given that Windows 10 support will end in October 2025. The instrument’s oscilloscope function will run regardless of which operating system you use.

The Tektronix Series 7 has a long list of optional features, which includes: