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Sonde Osciloscop - The Secret World of Probes Oct09
Sonde Osciloscop - The Secret World of Probes Oct09
OSCILLOSCOPE PROBES
Ever wondered how scope probes really work? Most textbooks
treat scope probes as a combination of a resistive divider
in combination with capacitors to provide an extended
frequency response. But as will be revealed, the reality is that
they are much more complex in principle. Read on.
By Doug Ford
he oscilloscope is an essential
tool for anyone working in
electronics. Whether youre
working in electronics service, production, testing R&D or in your home
workshop, you need an oscilloscope.
If you listen to a bunch of technical
people chatting about their scopes,
theyll talk about their bandwidth or
whether they have colour displays,
depth of memory or portability but the
probes rarely get mentioned.
In fact, most users dont think about
their probes until they hear the sickening crunch underfoot which tells them
they shouldnt have left them dangling
off the bench onto the floor.
There are many varieties of specialist probes: active-FET probes,
differential-floating probes, currentsensing probes are just some we could
mention.
16 Silicon Chip
Conventional explanations
Conventional wisdom explains
the operation of a x10 probe with
C comp 13.3pF
SIGNAL SOURCE
A
R1 50
V1
1000Hz
Rdiv 9M
PROBE TIP
COMPONENTS
SCOPE INPUT
B
PROBE CABLE
CABLE
CAPACITANCE
100pF
Rin
1M
Cin
20pF
(GROUND CLIP)
SIGNAL SOURCE
R1 50
V1
1000Hz
Rdiv 9M
x1/x10
SWITCH
C comp
15pF
SCOPE INPUT
B
PROBE CABLE
CABLE
CAPACITANCE
100pF
Cin
20pF
Rin
1M
PROBE TIP
COMPONENTS
October 2009 17
Fig.5: compensation trimmer at the scope end (left) and probe end (right).
Simulator software
CircuitMaker is a schematic layout
and simulator program originally released by Microcode.
Ive been told that Microcode bought
the Autotrax franchise from Protel in
the early 90s. In 1998, Protel bought
Microcode, then changed its name to
Altium in 2001. So, CircuitMaker became an Altium product, until Altium
discontinued it in 2001.
This is a pity, because this excellent
simulator was bundled with the PCB
C t 15pF
SIGNAL SOURCE
R1 50
Rdiv 9M
SCOPE INPUT
1.2m CABLE
V1
1000Hz
C comp
15pF
Cin
20pF
Rin
1M
(GROUND CLIP)
PROBE COMPONENTS
18 Silicon Chip
www.siliconchip.com.au
C t 15pF
SIGNAL SOURCE
B
R1 50
Rtip
SCOPE INPUT
1.2m CABLE
Rdiv 9M
Rc 50
250
50 lossless transmission line,
1.2m length: 83pF/m & 208nH/m
(i.e., 100pF total capacitance)
V1
1000Hz
C comp
15pF
Cin
20pF
Rin
1M
(GROUND CLIP)
PROBE COMPONENTS
www.siliconchip.com.au
of 165/m (200 total). Well also reduce the value of the probe-tip resistor
from 250 to 50. The overall probe
series resistance is still 250, as before.
Also, Im pretty sure that most
modern scopes dont use 50 series
resistors any more, because modern
high bandwidth scopes have very low
input capacitances (10pF ~ 15pF). This
renders the scopes 50 series terminator pretty useless at frequencies around
80MHz, where transmission-line endto-end resonance is most problematic.
Its irrelevant so lets get rid of it from
simulations.
Fig.9 shows the magic result: a
smooth and monotonic response,
which is -3dB down at 65MHz with no
nasty reflections or response anomalies
just a smooth, usable response!
Even more interesting: the response
of this simulation conforms quite
nicely to the behaviour of a typical
60MHz probe!
OK, so now we know the secret to designing a probe: use lossy transmissionline cable! But how can the response
be extended?
First: Ill assume that modern highbandwidth scopes dont have 50
series termination.
Secondly: Ill use the manufacturers
specs for a 100MHz oscilloscope and
250MHz probe in the simulator.
Thirdly: Ill assume a low-impedance source, instead of the 50 source
impedance used so far.
Fourthly: when I dissected the scopeend compensation trim of the cable
shown in Fig.8, I found that the trimmer capacitor was connected in series
October 2009 19
Transmission Lines
Ls1
Gp1
Rs2
Cp1
1st SEGMENT
Ls2
Gp2
2nd SEGMENT
Rs3
Cp2
Ls3
Gp3
3rd SEGMENT
Cp3
LsN
GpN
CpN
Nth SEGMENT
C t 15pF
SIGNAL SOURCE
B
R1 50
Rtip
Rdiv 9M
SCOPE INPUT
1.2m CABLE
50
50 lossy transmission line,
83pF/m, 208nH/m & 165 /m
(i.e., 100pF total capacitance &
200 total resistance)
V1
1000Hz
(GROUND CLIP)
C comp
15pF
Cin
20pF
Rin
1M
PROBE COMPONENTS
C t 15pF
SIGNAL SOURCE
B
R1 50
Rtip
Rdiv 9M
SCOPE INPUT
1.2m CABLE
50
V1
1000Hz
(GROUND CLIP)
Rcomp
68
C comp
35pF
Cin
15pF
Rin
1M
PROBE COMPONENTS
www.siliconchip.com.au
October 2009 21
Probe impedance
Does your x10 probe actually have
a 10M input impedance? Yes but
only at low frequencies.
Fig.12 shows the input impedance in dB re 1 of the 60MHz
probe of Fig.9. The impedance is
140dB (10M) below 1kHz but the
capacitance of the compensation cap
determines the impedance at higher
frequencies.
It is worth noting that when probing audio circuits at 20kHz, the probe
impedance is less than 1M.
www.siliconchip.com.au
LOW IMPEDANCE
SIGNAL SOURCE
C t 15pF
B
Rtip
SCOPE INPUT
1.2m CABLE
Rdiv 9M
50
V1
1000Hz
200nH
GROUND CLIP
INDUCTANCE
Rcomp
68
Cin
15pF
C comp
35pF
Rin
1M
PROBE COMPONENTS
Conclusions
The morals of this tale are:
Trim your probes compensation
capacitor!
Textbook analyses of probe operation rarely mention transmissionline effects but these are fundamental to the design of a probe.
There IS a difference between lowbandwidth and high-bandwidth
probes. High-bandwidth probes
are designed with carefully tailored
transmission-line cable and to
minimise the effects of end-to-end
transmission-line reflections. Much
more attention is paid to stray capacitances and build quality.
A x10 probe will only exhibit 10M
impedance at low frequencies. The
impedance at higher frequencies
is mainly determined by the probe
compensating capacitance.
Use identical probes with equal rise
time and bandwidth when interchannel timing is important (eg,
chasing race conditions or clock
skew).
Probe ground-lead inductance
can destroy waveform fidelity and
bandwidth. Use the kit of adaptors
in your probes pouch to ensure low
inductance probe grounds!
Dont let your probes dangle off the
test-bench. Even the good ones break
when you tread on them or run your
office chair over them!
LOW IMPEDANCE
SIGNAL SOURCE
C t 15pF
Rtip
Rdiv 9M
SCOPE INPUT
1.2m CABLE
50
V1
1000Hz
200nH
GROUND CLIP
INDUCTANCE
Rcomp
68
C comp
35pF
Cin
15pF
Rin
1M
PROBE COMPONENTS
REAL
VALUE
AT
$14.95
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