Today, time to market is a critical factor for the design engineers since the product lifecycle period is significantly shorter in current market scenario. The trend, we see today is that the mixed domain has evolved with the inclusion of wireless RF signals. With this, analog, digital and RF signals are coming together to the embedded domain, which have created significant changes across multiple design cycles. Kapil talks here about Tektronix leadership in offering integrating solutions that meets current design challenges and more about latest introduced product MDO3000 series mixed domain oscilloscope.
In test and measurement industry, we generally talk more about debug and troubleshooting challenges facing by engineers. Can you discuss more on these challenges and what Tektronix can offer differently to cope up with these challenges?
The electronics innovation industry has been continuously evolving itself towards making technology simpler and efficient. With the rising complexity of modern embedded designs coupled with the growth of wireless, there has been a constant growth of capital expenditure to make the required tools available for efficient debug and troubleshooting. The increasing challenge of wireless devices brings in many complex design, debug and validation challenges with an array of different standards that comes with them.
Additionally, dealing with the new optical and serial data bus architectures becoming difficult for design engineers since there has been an upward demand for ever-higher bandwidths.
As a leader in test, measurement and monitoring systems, Tektronix is at the forefront of innovation, delivering world-class products and services that empower the engineers across the globe to push the bounds of technology.
For last 68 years, Tektronix has been a trusted brand among the design engineers and solving mission critical designs, debug and innovation challenges. Its innovations continues with its breakthrough oscilloscope technology, the world’s first 6-in-1 Mixed Domain Oscilloscopes MDO3000 Series.
We always listen to our customers and industry requirements. If there’s a need of cutting edge test & measurement solutions for path breaking future innovations then we will meet the need as we have been doing it since our inception.
What is your outlook on India test and measurement market scenario? How the market pushes for the introduction of new technology and trends in products?
According to various industry reports, electronics engineering test and measurement equipment market is expected to witness a CAGR of 24.5% over the period 2011-2015. Some of the major market drivers include the increasing demand for electronic products and the rising need for test and measurement equipment for use in semiconductor devices.
The key customer segments in the industry are electronic manufacturers, wireless device manufacturers, semiconductor device manufacturers, research labs and education labs.
Which key applications you would like to highlight for the best use of your products?
Tektronix is the only oscilloscopes provider to integrate a spectrum analyzer as well as the various other instrument types. This is very relevant to our customer base, as multiple research activities have confirmed that >60% of oscilloscope customers also use spectrum analyzers. In fact, market research shows that customers desire spectrum analyzer integration more than any other instrument type.
Why there is a need to offer integrated technology? What is the vision of Tektronix introducing its breakthrough technology in oscilloscope segment?
Oscilloscopes’ market is characterized by three distinct categories – basic, main and professional. In the mainstream segment, users are mostly embedded engineers working on mixed domain designs. The trend, we see today is that the mixed domain has evolved with the inclusion of wireless RF signals. With this, analog, digital and RF signals are coming together to the embedded domain, which have created significant changes across multiple design cycles.
Today, time to market is a critical factor for the design engineers since the product lifecycle period is significantly shorter in current market scenario. Engineers needs a tool where time to answer is shorter for them and Tektronix’ new MDO3000 Series of Mixed Domain Oscilloscopes is the solution. With MDO3000, engineers get multiple tools in one instrument in a compact form factor, and is thus able to get results faster as the instruments are already integrated thus allowing him to analyse those signals faster.
According to a recent market survey done by Tektronix shows that over 25% of oscilloscope users use a spectrum analyzer multiple times per week, and over 40% of embedded design projects include some form of wireless capability. As the world’s only oscilloscope with a built-in spectrum analyzer, the MDO3000 Series is uniquely positioned to address this paradigm shift for today’s designers. Now engineers can access both time domain and frequency domain analysis in a single instrument. When compared to both standalone oscilloscopes and basic spectrum analyzers in this class, the MDO3000 Mixed Domain Oscilloscope provides best-in-class performance and features, providing the convenience of a single instrument without performance trade-offs.
Can you describe specialties of your newly introduced MDO3000 Series of Mixed Domain Oscilloscopes? Why it is ultimate?
The key aspect of the integration in the MDO3000 Series is that all the other instruments viz. logic analyzer, protocol analyzer, spectrum analyzer, function generator and DVM have been integrated into the oscilloscope itself. This is crucial from the customer’s perspective. Their tool of choice to debug and verify their designs is the oscilloscope. The other instruments are used on an intermittent basis and it’s almost always a hassle and time sink to find and relearn whatever piece of equipment they need other than the scope for any given debug task. With the tremendous integration provided by the MDO3000 Series, customers can stay focused on the task at hand, regardless of debug tools required.
When we look at the ROI aspects, the MDO3000’s upgradeability sets it apart in the marketplace due to both the number of upgrades available as well as how easy the upgrade process is for both our customers and our channel partners. There are two major categories of upgrades. First, there are performance upgrades. Customers can upgrade the bandwidth of their oscilloscope all the way up to 1 GHz. When the analog bandwidth is upgraded, the frequency range of the included spectrum analyzer is also upgraded to the new bandwidth level. And the frequency range of the spectrum analyzer can be upgraded from the bandwidth of the oscilloscope to 3 GHz. There are also functionality upgrades. These include adding the digital channels, arbitrary function generator, a variety of serial trigger / decode solutions as well as other advanced analysis packages such as power analysis and limit/mask testing.
The MDO3000 Series is relevant to a broader group of design engineers, both education and research people. Its multiuse feature enables Design Engineer’s and Educational Research by offering the functionality of six independent instruments without the significant cost of separate instruments.
