The May 2025 gathering of the monthly electronics “Flea at MIT” swapfest featured an excessive number of test instruments. We break them down into oscilloscopes, meters, and signal sources. Click on any image to enlarge in a new tab. Oscilloscopes A Tektronix analog modular oscilloscope. The black bezel hides the model number. This unit has […]
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APEC 2025 test equipment: oscilloscopes and probes
Oscilloscopes and probes play a vital role for engineers designing and testing power electronics. Delivering electrical power to analog and digital circuits and systems is more than just DC measurements. That’s because nearly all power-converter circuits use switching techniques to maximize efficiency. Silicon carbide (SiC and gallium nitride (GaN) transistors, with their higher voltage and […]
How to determine noise figure: part 4
Two incompatible definitions of noise factor can lead to confusion, which you can alleviate by understanding where the differences lie.
Isolated current probes eliminate ground loops
IsoVu isolated current probes from Tektronix isolate oscilloscopes from circuits used for EVs, motors, and power converters. Trying to make shunt-based current measurements with a typical oscilloscope probe is essentially impossible. That’s because one side of the probe connects to ground through the instrument. Using an ungrounded power cord is anything but safe. Differential probes […]
RF-isolated current probe achieves 140 dB CMRR at DC
Tektronix has released two new power measurement devices: the TICP Series IsoVu isolated current probes and the EA-PSB 20000 Triple series power supply. The TICP Series probes utilize RF isolation technology for current measurements across voltage systems. The probes achieve 140 dB common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) at DC and up to 90 dB at 1 […]
Tryout: Uni-T UTG962E Function/Arbitrary Waveform Generator
This waveform generator is small enough to fit on any bench and packs many useful features so long as you operate it from the physical or virtual front panel. The software, however, needs work. Walking the exhibit floor at IMS 2024, I passed by the Uni-Trend (Uni-T) booth where the UTG962E Function/Arbitrary Waveform Generator caught […]
Flea market vintage test equipment, September 2024
The monthly “Flea at MIT” featured an abundance of test equipment. We even bought some.
OFC 2024: How AI and silicon photonics will drive network test
EE World spoke with Sarah Boen, Director of Technology and ASIC Strategy at Tektronix, who spoke at a panel session on how AI and silicon photonics are changing networks and the challenges facing test engineers and reliability engineers.
APEC 2024: Test equipment
Test equipment is everywhere. Every trade show has it regardless of the focus. Power is no exception. At APEC 2024, EE World visited several booths displaying test equipment: meters, oscilloscopes, source-measure units (SMUs), bench power supplies, and electronic loads. The photos and videos below highlight what we saw, presented in alphabetical order by company. In […]
What are the important specifications of USB oscilloscopes: Part 2?
USB oscilloscopes can be highly useful design, development, and testing tools. Like many tools, they need to be optimized for specific use cases. This second FAQ looks at specifications for triggering, input ranges and probes, zooming, and control software. Part 1 considered specifications for the number and types of channels, bandwidth, sample rate, refresh rate, […]
