How and When to Use Fast Pulses and Sinewaves for Calibrating Oscilloscopes

Modern high performance oscilloscopes are pushing bandwidths ever higher, and these instruments are not just confined to highly specialized applications-scopes with bandwidths of several GHz are becoming increasingly commonplace. Oscilloscope calibration procedures typically include both pulse response (time domain) using pulses with fast known risetime and aberrations, and also bandwidth (frequency domain) tests using high frequency sinewaves. However, an equivalent bandwidth can be calculated from a risetime test, providing an attractive alternative for high frequency bandwidth tests, as fast risetime pulses can be more easily generated than correspondingly high frequency sinewaves when calibrating bandwidth in the GHz and 10s of GHz region.

This webinar examines and explains the reasons why time and frequency domain tests are made, enabling calibration practitioners to choose and use pulse and levelled sinewaves test methods in the most appropriate manner, understanding the implications of their choice.