For your applications, you'll be fine with a 100MHz scope. My most used scope is an old and crusty 100MHz TDS220, next stop is the good old analog 7603.
4 channels is pretty useful, most of the time you'll find yourself using one or two channels.
Having more than 100MHz BW also requires more advanced probing techniques, and often 50 Ohm terminated inputs. Your vanilla 10x scope probe won't make any use of more than 100MHz BW - you'll just see more ringing. So 100MHz, or even as low as 50MHz is enough for the most tasks in debugging analog and uC circuitry.
Absolute trace fidelity is beyond the realm of 200 MHz scopes.
For your applications, you'll be fine with a 100MHz scope. My most used scope is an old and crusty 100MHz TDS220, next stop is the good old analog 7603.
4 channels is pretty useful, most of the time you'll find yourself using one or two channels.
Having more than 100MHz BW also requires more advanced probing techniques, and often 50 Ohm terminated inputs. Your vanilla 10x scope probe won't make any use of more than 100MHz BW - you'll just see more ringing. So 100MHz, or even as low as 50MHz is enough for the most tasks in debugging analog and uC circuitry.Yes, the ordinary x10 probe won't work well at those frequencies. Fortunately it's easy to make your own low-Z probe. I made mine from 75R co-axial cable and some resistors, giving a total input impedance of 750R. 50R cable will work too, but the total impedance will be 500R.
It depends on what frequency analogue signals you will be using, what you will be looking for, and what logic family you will be using.
Sometimes analogue circuits can oscillate at a much higher frequency than you are expecting ("amplifiers oscillate, oscillators won't").
In some analogue applications, harmonics of the fundamental frequencies are important; factor that into your assessment.
A 100MHz scope will (just about) allow you to see a 3.5ns risetime; a 200MHz scope 1.8ns. Logic families from the early 80s (LSTTL, STTL) have that kind of risetime. Some modern jellybean logic families have sub-nanosecond risetimes (e.g. 74lvc). If using similar families, a principal use of a scope is to check "signal integrity", which needs all the bandwidth you can get.
Most "high" impedance *10 scope probes with a 6"/15cm ground lead self-oscillate at ~100MHz. A 200MHz scope will show you that, but a 100MHz scope will disguise it At such frequencies construction techniques and probing techniques become important.
Thanks everyone for your comments.It depends on what frequency analogue signals you will be using, what you will be looking for, and what logic family you will be using.
Sometimes analogue circuits can oscillate at a much higher frequency than you are expecting ("amplifiers oscillate, oscillators won't").
In some analogue applications, harmonics of the fundamental frequencies are important; factor that into your assessment.
A 100MHz scope will (just about) allow you to see a 3.5ns risetime; a 200MHz scope 1.8ns. Logic families from the early 80s (LSTTL, STTL) have that kind of risetime. Some modern jellybean logic families have sub-nanosecond risetimes (e.g. 74lvc). If using similar families, a principal use of a scope is to check "signal integrity", which needs all the bandwidth you can get.
Most "high" impedance *10 scope probes with a 6"/15cm ground lead self-oscillate at ~100MHz. A 200MHz scope will show you that, but a 100MHz scope will disguise it At such frequencies construction techniques and probing techniques become important.
Thanks for raising these limitations/pitfalls - some links that address some of them, that might be of interest to others:
- some interesting info on probing here - https://youtu.be/zodpCuxwn_o - from You Tuber Alan Wolke (w2aew)
- ... and here, tggzzz's own blog - https://entertaininghacks.wordpress.com/library-2/scope-probe-reference-material/ (Surprisingly, Tektronix's http://w140.com/tek_ABCs_of_Probes_1990.pdf incorrectly uses S (Siemens) instead of s (seconds) at various points throughout the article!)
- some useful articles on unexpected/unwanted oscillations and how to deal with them in this series of articles - https://e2e.ti.com/blogs_/archives/b/thesignal/archive/2012/05/23/why-op-amps-oscillate-an-intuitive-look-at-two-frequent-causes
In the absence of any way of seeing high frequency oscillations (frequency beyond limits of scope/probes), are there any standard tell tale signs to look out for? Is it possible the circuit would still function, but waste power at unobserved high frequencies, or are the signs more obvious?
Before finalizing the decision, I wonder if there are any use cases where the extra bandwidth would really make a significant difference to understanding what's going on in a circuit?
Before finalizing the decision, I wonder if there are any use cases where the extra bandwidth would really make a significant difference to understanding what's going on in a circuit?
Not hugely, no.
Signal integrity on a 10MHz square wave for example you get some more harmonics adding to the detail, but nothing to write home about. Probing is vastly more important at this point.
Maybe if you were actually measuring amplitudes of >100MHz signals it helps a lot of course, but few people actually have that requirement.
Most people simply won't notice any real usable difference between between 100MHz and 200MHz bandwidth.
For your applications, you'll be fine with a 100MHz scope. My most used scope is an old and crusty 100MHz TDS220, next stop is the good old analog 7603.
4 channels is pretty useful, most of the time you'll find yourself using one or two channels.
Having more than 100MHz BW also requires more advanced probing techniques, and often 50 Ohm terminated inputs. Your vanilla 10x scope probe won't make any use of more than 100MHz BW - you'll just see more ringing. So 100MHz, or even as low as 50MHz is enough for the most tasks in debugging analog and uC circuitry.Yes, the ordinary x10 probe won't work well at those frequencies. Fortunately it's easy to make your own low-Z probe. I made mine from 75R co-axial cable and some resistors, giving a total input impedance of 750R. 50R cable will work too, but the total impedance will be 500R.
May I ask, why did you choose 75Ohm over 50Ohm? Do you have a 75Ohm input impedance on your scope?
From my experience, few people need more than 100Mhz.........
Usually the extra money is forked out because the bigger the bandwidth number the "Cooler" it looks to have one.......same goes with most test equipment actually......
Found this page recently, and was surprised how good a 500 MHz signal looks on a 100 MHz scope...
https://hackaday.io/project/4327-stretching-the-limits-of-a-rigol-ds-1102e-scope