PicoScope 4444 differential oscilloscope features
Filtering
Digital filtering
The measured signal (blue) has a significant amount of noise that has been removed by adding a software lowpass filter. This allows both the live and filtered signals to be viewed at the same time.
Phase rulers
Oscilloscope phase rulers
Each channel has independent draggable rulers for amplitude measurement. Vertical rulers can measure time, percent (for duty cycle) or phase in degrees.
SENT bus decoding
SENT bus decoding
SENT bus (Single Edge Nibble Transmission) is one of the many protocols PicoScope can decode as standard
Advanced trigger options
Advanced trigger options
A wide range of advanced triggers are available. The trigger icon allows trigger level and pre/post trigger to be adjusted live on the waveform by mouse or touchscreen control
Mask test + actions
Oscilloscope mask test actions
Alarms provides several actions that can occur when a waveform fails a mask test.
True differential measurements in high resolution
The PicoScope 4444’s four inputs allow you to make true differential measurements. The maximum input range at full scale is ±50 V (±1000 V CAT III using the PicoConnect 442 probe), and the maximum common-mode range is also ±50 V (also ±1000 V with the PicoConnect 442 probe). You can set the scope to measure at resolutions of 12 or 14 bits, far better than the 8-bit resolution typical of many oscilloscopes. The deep capture memory (up to 256 million samples shared by the active channels) is another advantage, allowing you to carry out long captures without lowering the sampling rate.
Increasing the number of points in a FFT to 1 million increases frequency resolution and reduces the noise floor.
FFT spectrum analyzer
The spectrum view plots amplitude against frequency and is ideal for finding noise, crosstalk or distortion in signals. The spectrum analyzer in PicoScope is of the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) type which, unlike a traditional swept spectrum analyzer, can display the spectrum of a single, non-repeating waveform.
A full range of settings gives you control over the number of spectrum bands (FFT bins), window types, scaling (including log/log) and display modes (instantaneous, average, or peak-hold).
You can display multiple spectrum views alongside oscilloscope views of the same data. A comprehensive set of automatic frequency-domain measurements can be added to the display, including THD, THD+N, SNR, SINAD and IMD. A mask limit test can be applied to a spectrum and you can even use the AWG and spectrum mode together to perform swept scalar network analysis.
More information on Spectrum analyzer >>
Deep-memory oscilloscopes
The PicoScope 4444 oscilloscope has a huge buffer memory of 256 million samples – many times larger than competing scopes of either PC-based or traditional benchtop design.
Deep memory produces several benefits: fast sampling at long timebases, timebase zoom, and memory segmentation to let you capture a sequence of events. Deep memory oscilloscopes are also ideal for serial decoding applications as they allow the capture of many thousands of frames of data.
Most other scopes with large buffers slow down when using deep memory, so you have to manually adjust the buffer size to suit each application. You don’t have to worry about this with PicoScope deep-memory scopes as hardware acceleration ensures you can always use deep memory while displaying at full speed.
More information on Deep memory oscilloscopes >>
DeepMeasure parameters
DeepMeasure™
One waveform, millions of measurements.
Measurement of waveform pulses and cycles is key to verification of the performance of electrical and electronic devices.
DeepMeasure delivers automatic measurements of important waveform parameters, such as pulse width, rise time and voltage. Up to a million cycles can be displayed with each triggered acquisition. Results can be easily sorted, analyzed and correlated with the waveform display.
More information on DeepMeasure >>
Digital triggering
The majority of digital oscilloscopes still use an analog triggering architecture based on comparators. This causes time and amplitude errors that cannot always be calibrated out and often limits the trigger sensitivity at high bandwidths.
In 1991 Pico pioneered the use of fully digital triggering using the actual digitized data. This technique reduces trigger errors and allows our oscilloscopes to trigger on the smallest signals, even at the full bandwidth. Trigger levels and hysteresis can be set with high precision and resolution.
The reduced rearm delay provided by digital triggering, together with segmented memory, allows the capture of events that happen in rapid sequence. On many of our products, rapid triggering can capture a new waveform every microsecond until the buffer is full.
More information on Advanced digital triggers >>
Digital triggering
The majority of digital oscilloscopes still use an analog trigger architecture based on comparators. This causes time and amplitude errors that cannot always be calibrated out and often limits the trigger sensitivity at high bandwidths.
In 1991 Pico pioneered the use of fully digital triggering using the actual digitized data. This technique reduces trigger errors and allows our oscilloscopes to trigger on the smallest signals, even at the full bandwidth. Trigger levels and hysteresis can be set with high precision and resolution.
The reduced rearm delay provided by digital triggering, together with segmented memory, allows the capture of events that happen in rapid sequence. On many of our products, rapid triggering can capture a new waveform every microsecond until the buffer is full.
More information on Advanced digital triggering >>
Hardware Acceleration Engine (HAL3)
Some oscilloscopes struggle when you enable deep memory; the screen update rate slows and controls become unresponsive. The PicoScope 4000A Series avoids this limitation with use of a dedicated hardware acceleration engine inside the oscilloscope. Its parallel design effectively creates the waveform image to be displayed on the PC screen. PicoScope oscilloscopes manage deep memory better than competing oscilloscopes, both PC-based and benchtop.
The PicoScope 4000A Series is fitted with third-generation hardware acceleration (HAL3). This speeds up areas of oscilloscope operation such as allowing waveform update rates in excess of 100 000 waveforms per second and the segmented memory/rapid trigger modes. The hardware acceleration engine ensures that any concerns about the USB connection or PC processor performance being a bottleneck are eliminated.
100 000 waveforms per second
An important specification to understand when evaluating oscilloscope performance is the waveform update rate, which is expressed as waveforms per second. While the sample rate indicates how frequently the oscilloscope samples the input signal within one waveform, or cycle, the waveform capture rate refers to how quickly an oscilloscope acquires waveforms.
Oscilloscopes with high waveform capture rates provide better visual insight into signal behavior and dramatically increase the probability that the oscilloscope will quickly capture transient anomalies such as jitter, runt pulses and glitches – that you may not even know exist.
The PicoScope 4444 oscilloscope uses hardware acceleration to achieve up to 100 000 waveforms per second.
More information on Fast waveform update rates >>
Signal integrity
Most oscilloscopes are built down to a price. PicoScopes are built up to a specification.
Careful front-end design and shielding reduces noise, crosstalk and harmonic distortion. Years of oscilloscope design experience can be seen in improved bandwidth flatness and low distortion.
We are proud of the dynamic performance of our products and publish our specifications in detail. The result is simple: when you probe a circuit, you can trust in the waveform you see on the screen.
PicoScope = PC oscilloscopes done properly.
