Pico Technology has released a new range of PicoScope 2000 Series oscilloscopes that occupy about the area of a passport and are only 19 mm (¾") thick. Connected to and powered from a USB port, they offer bandwidths up to 200 MHz and feature an arbitrary waveform generator, yet are almost 80% smaller than the previous generation of PicoScopes. This makes them the perfect scopes for engineers on the move to keep in their laptop bag, while offering all the features and performance of a traditional benchtop oscilloscope.
The new PicoScope 2000 range was very much a "skunkworks" project, explained Managing Director Alan Tong. "We give all of our engineers one afternoon a week to work on a project of their own choosing, and a group decided to see how small they could make an oscilloscope without compromising on performance. They kept the project secret until they had a working prototype complete with a 3D-printed enclosure. When I saw it I was immediately sold on the idea, as it was a product I wanted to own myself. It’s so small and light, I now carry an oscilloscope in my laptop bag all the time." [2014-09]