UK made: Four channel 1GHz mixed-signal PC scope with active probes

Update: April 29, 2021
UK made: Four channel 1GHz mixed-signal PC scope with active probes

“With bandwidths of 750MHz or 1GHz, 8bit or 8-10-12bit flexible resolution and up to 4Gsample capture memory, these products enhance the existing PicoScope 6000E portfolio, adding to the 350MHz and 500MHz models that were introduced in 2020,” according to the company.

Optional A3000 Series high-impedance active probes are available, with an input capacitance of 0.9pF in parallel with 1MΩ, and the ability to pass through the full 750MHz or 1GHz to the probe tip.

These have been designed for use with the 6000E intelligent probe interface – which provides probe power and automatically tells the oscilloscope to switching its input impedance to 50Ω and set attenuation and scaling.

“PicoScope 6000E Series incorporates many features as standard, such as a 4Gsample capture buffer, 21 serial protocol decoder-analysers, spectrum analysis, a 50MHz arbitrary waveform generator, and user-defined math and alarm functions for in-depth analysis and long-term unattended testing,” said pico Tech business development manager Trevor Smith. “Extension of the 6000E Series addresses high-performance debugging and design verification requirements that are faced by engineers developing advanced electronic systems.”

The scopes are 245 x 192 x 62mm and work with the company’s PicoScope 6 application software.

A software development kit, PicoSDK, is available without payment and enables users to write applications around the hardware. It includes instrument drivers for Windows, macOS and Linux, and code examples in C, C#, C++ and Python.

Drivers are also provided to interface with third-party software packages such as Microsoft Excel, NI LabView and MathWorks Matlab – Pico is an approved MathWorks connections program partner.

The PicoScopes are:

  • 6405E – 750MHz, 8bit, 2Gsample memory
  • 6425E – 750MHz, 8-10-12bit, 4Gsample memory
  • 6406E – 1GHz, 8bit, 2Gsample memory
  • 6426E – 1GHz 8-10-12bit, 4Gsample memory

and the active probes:

  • A3076 – 750MHz
  • A3136 – 1.3GHz
  • TA369 mixed signal pod – 8channel, 1ns capture

The PicoScope 6000E product page is here