Advantages of Oscilloscope | disadvantages of Oscilloscope

This page covers advantages and disadvantages of Oscilloscope (analog and digital types). It mentions Oscilloscope advantages or benefits and Oscilloscope disadvantages or drawbacks. Both analog oscilloscope and digital oscilloscope types are covered.

Introduction:
Oscilloscope is the instrument used to measure voltage waveform with respect to time on the screen. It uses probe in order to connect test point with the oscilloscope.

Based on its internal design, oscilloscopes are categorized into analog oscilloscope and digital oscilloscope. Analog oscilloscope works with continuous variable voltages. Digital oscilloscope works with binary numbers consisting of 1s and 0s. These binary numbers represent voltage samples. Digital oscilloscope reads analog waveform and converts the same into digital form using ADC (Analog to Digital Converter).

Benefits or advantages of Oscilloscope (Analog Type)

Following are the benefits or advantages of Oscilloscope (Analog Type):
➨It is cheaper compare to digital counterpart.
➨It delivers reasonable performance which are accurate for many lab exercises.
➨It does not require ADC, µP (Microprocessor) and acquisition memory for measurement purpose.

Drawbacks or disadvantages of Oscilloscope (Analog Type)

Following are the disadvantages of Oscilloscope (Analog Type):
➨As there is no storage memory available, it can only analyze signal in real time.
➨It can not analyze high frequency sharp rise time transients.
➨It does not offer all the capabilities as supported by digital oscilloscope type.
➨It requires some amount of training to use it.

Benefits or advantages of Oscilloscope (Digital Type)

Following are the benefits or advantages of Oscilloscope (Digital Type):
➨It can analyze signal in real time as well as can analyze large samples of acquired data with the help of storage memory.
➨It can analyze high frequency transients due to advanced DSP algorithms available.

Drawbacks or disadvantages of Oscilloscope (Digital Type)

Following are the disadvantages of Oscilloscope (Digital Type):
➨It requires ADC, µP and acquisition memory for measurement purpose.
➨It is costly and cost depends on features supported in different available models viz. digital storage oscilloscope, digital phosphor oscilloscope and digital sampling oscilloscope.

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