PicoScope® 3000 Series
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Power, portability and performance 2 or 4 analog channels MSO models with 16 digital channels Up to 200 MHz analog bandwidth Up to 512 MS capture memory 1 GS/s real-time sampling 100 000 waveforms per second Built-in arbitrary waveform generator USB 3.0 connected and powered Automatic measurements • Mask limit testing Advanced triggers • Math channels Spectrum analyzer • Serial decoding Free technical support and updates PicoScope, PicoLog and PicoSDK software included 5-year warranty

Introduction The PicoScope 3000 Series PC oscilloscopes are small, light and portable, while offering the high-performance specifications required by engineers in the lab or on the move. These oscilloscopes offer 2 or 4 analog channels, plus an additional 16 digital channels on the mixed-signal (MSO) models. The flexible, high‑quality display options enable you to view and analyze each signal in fine detail. All models come with a built-in function generator and arbitrary waveform generator (AWG). Operating together with the PicoScope 6 software, these devices offer an ideal, cost-effective...

High bandwidth, high sampling rate, deep memory Despite their compact size and low cost, there is no compromise on performance, with input bandwidths up to 200 MHz. This bandwidth is matched by a real-time sampling rate of up to 1 GS/s, enabling detailed display of high frequencies. For repetitive signals, the maximum effective sampling rate can be boosted to 10 GS/s using equivalent time sampling (ETS) mode. With a sampling rate of at least five times the input bandwidth, PicoScope 3000 Series oscilloscopes are well equipped to capture high-frequency signal detail. Many other oscilloscopes...

Application examples Testing on the move The PicoScope 3000 Series oscilloscopes slip easily into a laptop bag, so you don’t need to carry bulky benchtop instruments to perform on-site troubleshooting. Being powered via a USB connection, you can simply plug your PicoScope into your laptop and use it for measuring wherever you are. The PC connection also makes saving and sharing your data quick and easy: in a matter of seconds you can save your scope traces to review later, or attach the complete data file to an email for analysis by other engineers away from the test site. As PicoScope 6 is...

PicoScope features Advanced display PicoScope 6 software dedicates the majority of the display area to the waveform, ensuring that the maximum amount of data is visible at all times. The size of the display is only limited by the size of your computer’s monitor, so even with a laptop, the viewing area is much bigger, with much higher resolution, than that of a benchtop scope. With such a large display area available, you can create a customizable split-screen display and view multiple channels or different views of the same signal at the same time – the software can even show multiple...

Digital triggering architecture In 1991, Pico Technology pioneered the use of digital triggering using the actual digitized data. Traditionally, digital oscilloscopes have used an analog trigger architecture based on comparators, which can cause time and amplitude errors that cannot always be calibrated out. Additionally, the use of comparators can often limit the trigger sensitivity at high bandwidths and can create a long trigger rearm delay. Pico’s technique of fully digital triggering reduces trigger errors and allows our oscilloscopes to trigger on the smallest signals, even at the...

Spectrum analyzer The spectrum view plots amplitude against frequency and is ideal for finding noise, crosstalk or distortion in signals. PicoScope uses a fast Fourier transform (FFT) spectrum analyzer, which (unlike a traditional swept spectrum analyzer) can display the spectrum of a single, non-repeating waveform. With up to a million points, PicoScope’s FFT has excellent frequency resolution and a low noise floor. With a click of a button, you can display a spectrum plot of the active channels, with a maximum frequency of up to 200 MHz. A comprehensive range of settings gives you control...

Persistence mode PicoScope’s persistence mode options allow you to see old and new data superimposed, making it easy to spot glitches and dropouts and estimate their relative frequency – useful for displaying and interpreting complex analog signals such as video waveforms and amplitude-modulated signals. Color-coding and intensity-grading show which areas are stable and which are intermittent. Choose between Analog Intensity, Digital Color and Fast display modes or create your own custom setup. An important specification to understand when evaluating oscilloscope performance, especially in...

Arbitrary waveform and function generator All PicoScope 3000 Series oscilloscopes have a built-in function generator and arbitrary waveform generator (AWG). The function generator can produce sine, square, triangle and DC level waveforms, and many more besides, while the AWG allows you to import waveforms from data files or create and modify them using the built-in graphical AWG editor. As well as level, offset and frequency controls, advanced options allow you to sweep over a range of frequencies. Combined with the advanced spectrum mode, with options including peak hold, averaging and...

HAL3 hardware acceleration Many oscilloscopes struggle when deep memory is enabled: the screen update rate slows and the controls can become unresponsive. The PicoScope 3000 Series oscilloscopes avoid this limitation with the use of a dedicated hardware acceleration engine. This parallel design effectively creates the waveform image to be displayed on the PC screen and allows the continuous capture and display of over 440 000 000 samples every second. For example, the PicoScope 3206D can sample at 1 GS/s on timebases as long as 20 ms/div, capturing 200 million samples per waveform, and...

High signal integrity Careful front-end design and shielding reduce noise, crosstalk and harmonic distortion, meaning we are proud to publish the specifications of our scopes in detail. Decades of oscilloscope design experience can be seen in improved pulse response and bandwidth flatness, and low distortion. PicoScope 3000 Series oscilloscopes feature 10 input ranges from ±20 mV to ±20 V full scale and a typical dynamic performance of up to 52 dB SFDR. The result is simple: when you probe a circuit, you can trust in the waveform you see on the screen. High-end features as standard Buying a...