Signal Integrity Versus “Headr

When you choose an oscilloscope, you
always need to make tradeoffs. But you
also need to make sure you understand
the claims made by competing
oscilloscope vendors, so you do not
unintentionally make a tradeoff that
will adversely affect your measurement
accuracy without buying you much
advantage elsewhere.
In February 2007, Tektronix introduced
the DPO/DSA72004A oscilloscope,
which Tektronix advertises as
the world’s first 20 GHz real time
oscilloscope.  Tektronix argues that
some measurements of today and
tomorrow require at least 20 GHz of
bandwidth and they have the only
solution.   This paper discusses
bandwidth requirements of today
and tomorrow, and explores tradeoffs
that you make when purchasing the
Tektronix oscilloscope over the Agilent
90000 Series oscilloscope.