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Electrical & Electronics Engineering vocabulary · Measurement and Test Equipment

Oscilloscope

Meaning in electrical & electronics engineering, with examples

/əˈsɪləˌskoʊp/nounCore term

In electrical & electronics engineering, oscilloscope means: An instrument that draws a voltage as a graph over time, so you can see the shape, size and timing of a signal. Engineers often just call it a scope.

In Turkish: osiloskop, skop

How it is used

Used to debug signals, power rails and communication lines. You set the timebase and the volts per division, adjust the trigger and capture a waveform. The key specifications are bandwidth, sample rate and the number of channels.

Example sentences

  1. Put the oscilloscope on the clock line and see if there's any ringing.

  2. We need an oscilloscope with at least 200 MHz of bandwidth for this board.

Common collocations

  • digital oscilloscope
  • oscilloscope probe
  • trigger level
  • capture a waveform
  • scope shot
  • probeThe tip and lead that connect a measuring instrument, such as a multimeter or an oscilloscope, to the point you want to measure.
  • waveformThe shape of a signal when its voltage or current is drawn against time, such as a sine, square, triangle or sawtooth wave.
  • bandwidthThe range of frequencies a circuit, instrument or channel can handle well, usually up to the point where the signal falls by 3 dB. In communications it also means data capacity.
  • multimeterA handheld or bench instrument that measures voltage, current and resistance, and often continuity, capacitance and frequency as well. It is the most basic tool for electrical testing.
  • signalA voltage or current that carries information, such as a sensor reading, a sound or digital data. Signals can be analog, changing smoothly, or digital, switching between fixed levels.

More terms: Measurement and Test Equipment

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