DESCRIPTION:

The Rohde & Schwarz MXO38-500 combines eight analogue input channels with 500 MHz bandwidth, delivering one of the most capable platforms available for engineers working on complex multi-rail power systems, embedded controllers, industrial automation equipment, communications hardware, automotive electronics, and mixed-signal designs. The MXO 3 architecture introduces substantial improvements in acquisition speed, vertical resolution, memory depth, and spectrum analysis performance compared with conventional oscilloscopes.

At the core of the MXO38-500 is a custom 12-bit analog-to-digital converter operating at full resolution across all sampling rates. Compared with traditional 8-bit oscilloscopes, this architecture provides sixteen times greater vertical resolution, allowing engineers to observe subtle signal variations, power rail ripple, switching noise, jitter, transient disturbances, and signal integrity issues with exceptional clarity. Integrated HD mode further increases effective vertical resolution to as much as 18 bits for precision measurement applications.

The oscilloscope supports sampling rates up to 5 GSa/s and provides an industry-leading 500 Mpoints memory depth. This deep memory architecture enables extended waveform capture while maintaining high timing resolution, allowing engineers to analyse lengthy protocol sequences, startup events, control loops, motor drives, switching power supplies, and complex transient behaviour without sacrificing detail.

A defining feature of the MXO platform is its waveform acquisition performance. The MXO38-500 captures more than 4.5 million waveforms per second while maintaining up to 99% real-time signal visibility. This dramatically increases the probability of capturing intermittent faults, rare glitches, timing violations, protocol errors, and sporadic disturbances that may remain hidden on slower oscilloscopes.

Integrated spectrum analysis performs up to 50,000 FFT calculations per second and allows independent configuration of time-domain and frequency-domain measurements. Engineers can perform EMI investigations, harmonics analysis, RF troubleshooting, switching power supply development, and mixed-domain debugging without requiring a dedicated spectrum analyzer.

Advanced triggering capabilities include edge, pulse width, runt, glitch, timeout, setup-and-hold, logic, serial bus, zone, spectrum, and math triggering. Trigger rearm times below 21 ns and trigger jitter as low as 1 ps provide exceptional event isolation and debugging performance for demanding applications.

The large 11.6-inch Full HD touchscreen provides extensive workspace for simultaneous viewing of eight analogue channels, protocol decodes, FFT measurements, automated measurements, and mixed-domain analysis results. The platform can be expanded with optional logic analysis, waveform generation, protocol decoding, power analysis, automotive Ethernet analysis, and frequency response analysis capabilities.

Keywords: Rohde & Schwarz MXO38-500, MXO38, 500 MHz oscilloscope, eight-channel oscilloscope, 12-bit oscilloscope, mixed signal oscilloscope

Technical Specifications

Key Features

• Eight analogue input channels
• 500 MHz bandwidth
• True 12-bit ADC architecture
• Up to 18-bit HD mode
• Up to 5 GSa/s sampling rate
• 500 Mpoints memory depth
• More than 4.5 million waveforms per second acquisition rate
• Up to 99% real-time signal visibility
• Up to 50,000 FFT calculations per second
• Integrated spectrum analysis
• Advanced digital triggering architecture
• Zone, logic, serial bus, spectrum and math triggering
• Optional 16-channel logic analysis
• Optional arbitrary waveform generation
• Optional protocol analysis packages
• Optional power analysis and frequency response analysis
• 11.6-inch Full HD touchscreen display
• HDMI, USB and LAN connectivity
• Optimized for complex multi-channel debugging applications

Usage Suitability

The MXO38-500 is ideally suited for embedded systems development, FPGA validation, industrial automation diagnostics, communications engineering, automotive electronics, aerospace electronics, power electronics development, EMI investigations, protocol verification, manufacturing diagnostics, laboratory research, and advanced electronics engineering applications requiring eight simultaneous analogue channels, 500 MHz bandwidth, deep memory acquisition, and exceptionally high waveform update rates.