TSP #87 - Tektronix MDO4104C-6 Mixed Domain Oscilloscope (MDO4000C) Review, Teardown and Experiments
In this episode Shahriar performs a full review on the Tektronix MDO4000C series mixed domain oscilloscope, particularly model MDO4104C-6. The MDO4000C combines up to six instruments including a function generator and a built-in spectrum analyzer. Unlike any other instrument, it can synchronize RF, analog and digital channels. These correlated measurements provide insight into difficult to find problems particularly intermittent events.
This review begins with a comparison between the MDO4000B and MDO4000C instruments. The full review of the MDO4000B can be viewed here (http://youtu.be/gyzwS5Ozb7U). All experiments demonstrated in the MDO4000B review are also relevant to the MDO4000C instrument.
The teardown of the instrument reveals a multi-board construction where the ADCs, FPGAs, application processor and memory are on the main system board. A complete analysis of the entire system is presented including the operation of the RF module.
In order to demonstrate the instrument’s capabilities, an encrypted frequency hopping transmitter system is analyzed. The system exhibits various problems such as high BER, low SFDR, poor phase-noise and EVM. The MDO4000C is used to perform advanced measurements across analog, digital and RF domain to track and resolve these problem. The complete block diagram of the experiment can be found on the signal path website.
The Signal Path
http://www.TheSignalPath.com
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