Dr.Y.Narasimha Murthy Ph.

D
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Cathode Ray Oscilloscope (CRO)
Introduction:

The Cathode Ray Oscilloscope (CRO) is a very useful and versatile electronic instrument
used for display, measurement and analysis of waveforms and other electrical and electronic
signals. CROs can be considered as very fast X-Y plotters displaying an input signal versus
another signal or versus time.
An oscilloscope can display and also measure many electrical quantities like ac/dc voltage, time,
phase relationships, frequency and a wide range of waveform characteristics like rise-time, fall-
timeand overshoot etc. Non-electrical quantities like pressure, strain, and temperature and
acceleration etc.can also be measured by using different transducers to first convert them into an
equivalent voltage.
CRO Principle & Operation:
The heart of the CRO is the CRT and the CRT Produces a sharply focused beam of
electrons, accelerated to a very high velocity. This electron beam travels from the electron gun to
the screen. While travelling to the screen, electron beams passes between a set of vertical
deflecting plates and a set of horizontal deflection plates. Voltages applied to these plates can
move the beam in vertical and horizontal plane respectively. The electron beam then strikes the
fluorescent screen (phosphor) with sufficient energy and displays the signals as wave forms.
The CRO uses a horizontal input voltage which is an internally generated ramp voltage
called ‘time base’. The horizontal voltage deflects the luminous spot periodically in a horizontal
direction from left to right over the screen. The voltage to be measured is applied to vertical
input of the CRO .This vertical input voltage moves the luminous spot up and down in
accordance with the instantaneous value of the voltage. The luminous spot thus traces the
waveform of the input voltage with respect to time. When the input voltage repeats itself at a fast
rate, the display on the screen appears stationary on the screen. The CRO thus provides a means
of visualizing time-varying voltages. This is the working principle of a CRO.
Cathode-Ray Oscilloscope (CRO)-Block diagram
The CRO provides a two-dimensional visual display of the signal as waves on a screen .
An oscilloscope can display and also measure many electrical quantities like ac/dc voltage, time,
phase relationships, frequency and a wide range of waveform characteristics like rise-time, fall-
time and overshoot etc. Non-electrical quantities like pressure, strain, temperature and
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acceleration etc can also be measured by using different transducers to first convert them into an
equivalent voltage.
The functional blocks of a CRO(Sub-systems)
Basically a CRO consists of the following parts.
(i).Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)–Heart of the CRO which displays the signal to be measured.
(ii).Vertical amplifier– This amplifies the signal waveform to be displayed.
(iii).Horizontal amplifier–This is fed with a saw tooth voltage which is then applied to the X-
plates.
(iv).Time base circuit or Sweep generator: It produces saw tooth voltage waveform used for
horizontal deflection of the electron beam.
(v).Trigger circuit–produces trigger pulses to start horizontal sweep.
(vi).High tension and low-tension voltage supplies.
The block diagram of a CRO is shown below.

A CRO can operate upto 500 MHz, can allow viewing of signals within a time span of a
few nanoseconds and can provide a number of waveform displays simultaneously on the screen.
It also has the ability to hold the displays for a short or long time (of many hours) so that the
original signal may be compared with one coming on later.
BLOCK DIAGRAM OF A CATHODE RAY TUBE (CRT)
The main part of the CRO is Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) and it is also called the heart of the CRO.

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It generates the electron beam, accelerates the beam to a high velocity, deflects the beam
to create the image and contains a phosphor screen where the electron beam eventually becomes
visible. The phosphor screen is coated with ‘aquadag’ to collect the secondary emitted electrons.
A CRT has four important parts.They are (i).Electron gun module which produces a
beam of cathode rays or electron beam.(ii). focussing and accelerating anodes-for producing a
narrow and sharply - focused beam of electrons, (iii). Horizontal and vertical deflecting plates-
for controlling the path of the beam, (v).Phosphorescent screen which produces bright spot when
struck by a high-velocity electron beam.

Electron Gun module

The electron gun assembly consists of an indirectly-heated cathode K, a control grid G, a

pre-accelerator anode A1, focussing anode A2 and an accelerating anode A3. The main function
of the electron gun assembly is to provide a focused beam of electrons which is accelerated
towards the fluorescent screen. The electrons are emitted by thermionic emission from the
cathode. The control grid is a metallic cylinder with a small aperture in line with the cathode and
kept at a negative potential with respect to K. The number of electrons allowed to pass through
the grid aperture depends on the amount of the control grid bias.
Since the intensity (or brightness)of the spot S on the screen depends on the strength of
beam current, the knob controlling the grid bias is called the intensity control.
The anodes A1 and A3, which are both at positive potential with respect to K, operate to
accelerate the electron beam.The cylindrical focusing anode A2, being at negative potential,
repels electrons from all sides and compresses them into a fine beam. The knob controlling the
potential of A2 provides the focus control.
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Deflecting Plates
Two sets of deflecting plates are used for deflecting the narrow cathode (electron) beam both in
the vertical and horizontal directions. The first set marked Y is for vertical deflection and X-set is
for horizontal deflection. When no potential is applied across the plates, beam passes
between both sets of plates undeflected and produces a bright spot at the centre of the screen.
If upper Y -plate is given a positive potential, the beam is deflected upwards depending on the
value of the applied potential. Similarly, the beam (and hence the spot)deflects downwards when
lower Y -plate is made positive.
However, if an alternating voltage is applied across theY -plates, the spot keeps moving up and
down thereby producing a vertical luminous trace on the screen due to persistence of vision. The
maximum displacement of the spot from its central position is equal to the amplitude of the
applied voltage.
The electron spot is deflected horizontally if similar voltages are applied to the X-plates. The dc
potentials on the Y -and X-plates are adjustable by means of centring controls. The signal to be
displayed on the screen is always applied across the Y -plates. The voltage applied across X-
plates is a ramp voltage i.e. a voltage which increases linearly with time. It has a saw tooth wave-
form as shown below. It is also called horizontal time-base or sweep voltage . It has a sweep time
of Tsw.

Fluorescent screen
It is a phosphor-coated screen at the end of the tube.The tube is highly-evacuated in order to
permit the electron beam to traverse the tube easily. The inside of the flared part of the tube is
coated with a conducting graphite layer called Aquadag which is maintained at the same
potential as A3. This layer performs two functions (i) it accelerates the electron beam after it
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passes between the deflecting plates and (ii) collects the electrons produces by secondary
emission when electron beam strikes the screen. Hence, it prevents the formation of negative
charge on the screen.
The screen itself is coated with a thin layer of a fluorescent material called phosphor. When
struck by high-energy electrons, it glows. In other words, it absorbs the kinetic energy of the
electrons and converts it into light-the process being known as fluorescence. That is why the
screen is called fluorescent screen. The color of the emitted light depends on the type of
phosphor used.
ELECTROSTATIC DEFLECTION
In a CRO There are two parallel plates between which a potential is applied . These plates
produce a uniform electrostatic filed in the Y direction. So, any electron entering the field will
experience a force in the Y direction and will be accelerated in that direction. There is no force
either in X direction or Z direction and hence there will be no acceleration of electrons in these
two directions.
Let, Ea = voltage of pre-accelerating anode; (volt)
e = charge of an electron; (Coulomb)
m = mass of electron; (kg)
θ = deflection angle of the electron beam
vox = velocity of electron when entering the field of deflecting plates; (m/s)
Ed = potential difference between deflecting plates; (volt)
d = distance between deflecting plates; (m)
l = length of deflecting plates; (m)
L = distance between screen and the centre of the deflecting plates; (m)
y = displacement of the electron beam from the horizontal axis at time t
and D = deflection of the electron beam on the screen in Y direction
Deflection Sensitivity of a CRT
When the electron beam passes through the Vertical plates they undergo an upward deflection.
The beam deflects upwards because the upper Y -plate has been made positive with respect to the
lower plate. Reversing the polarity of the applied voltage would, obviously, cause the beam to
deflect downwards. The vertical deflection of the beam is

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where VA is the accelerating voltage applied to the electrons which accelerates the electron
beam. The deflection sensitivity of a CRT is defined as the vertical deflection of the beam on the
screen per unit deflecting voltage.

S =y/Vd
Using the above equation, we get S = lD /(2dVA )

The deflection factor which is defined as the reciprocal of deflection sensitivity is given by

G = 1/S.
Substituting the value of S from above

Sampling CRO:
The main limitation of conventional oscilloscopes is that they can’t be used to view high-
frequency signals because their frequency range is limited by the gain-bandwidth product of the
vertical amplifier. So, a Sampling oscilloscope is mainly used to observe very high frequency
repetitive electric signals by using the sampling technique. The sampling technique ‘slows
down’ the signal frequency many thousands of times thereby making it easier to view it on the
screen.
The sampling frequency may be as low as 1/100th of the input signal frequency, i.e., an ordinary
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oscilloscope having a bandwidth of 10 MHz can be used for observing input signal of
frequency as high as 1000 MHz. As many as 1000 samples are used to reconstruct the
original waveform.
The block diagram of a sampling oscilloscope is shown below.

The input waveform, which is repetitive, is applied to the sampling gate. Sampling pulses
momentarily bias the diodes of the balanced sampling gate in the forward direction, thereby
briefly connecting the gate input capacitance to the test point. These capacitors are slightly
charged toward the voltage level of the input circuit. The capacitor voltage is amplified by a
vertical amplifier and applied to the vertical deflecting plates. The sampling must be
synchronised with the input signal frequency. The signal is delayed in the vertical amplifier,
allowing the horizontal sweep to be initiated by the input signal.

At the beginning of each sampling cycle, the trigger pulse activates an oscillator and a linear
ramp voltage is generated. The ramp voltage is applied to a voltage comparator which compares
the ramp voltage to a staircase generator output voltage. When the two voltages are equal in
amplitude, the staircase generator is allowed to advance one step and simultaneously a sampling
pulse is applied to the sampling gate. At this moment, a sample of the input voltage is taken,
amplified and applied to the vertical deflecting plates. The resolution of the final image on the
screen of the CRT is determined by the size of the steps of the staircase generator.

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The smaller the size of these steps, the larger the number of samples and the higher the resolution
of the image. The sampling oscilloscope can be employed beyond 50 MHz into the UHF range
around 500 MHz and beyond up to 10 GHz. However, sampling techniques cannot be
used for the display of transients waveforms as they are not repetitive signals.

STORAGE OSCILLOSCOPE

There are two types of storage oscilloscopes, they are ,

i. Analog storage oscilloscope
ii. Digital storage oscilloscope
As the Digital storage oscilloscopes have more advantages in terms of efficiency, performance
and speed they are widely used.
Digital storage oscilloscope
A digital storage oscilloscope (DSO) first digitizes the waveform to be stored in a digital
memory and retrieved for display on the storage oscilloscope. The stored waveform is
continually displayed by repeatedly scanning the stored waveform and, therefore, a conventional
CRT can be employed for the display and thus some of the cost of the additional circuitry for
digitizing and storing the input waveform is offset. The stored display can be displayed
indefinitely as long as the power is applied to the memory, which can be supplied with a small
battery.
The block diagram of a digital storage oscilloscope (DSO) is shown below. It uses both of
digital-to-Analog and Analog-to-Digital (DACs and ADCs) for digitizing, storing and displaying
analog waveforms. The control circuits control the overall operation. Generally a microprocessor
or microcontroller is used to execute a control program stored in Read-Only Memory (ROM).

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The data acquisition portion of the system contains a sample-and-hold (S/H) and a analog-to-
digital converter that repetitively samples and digitized the input signal at a rate determined by
the sample clock, and transmits the digitised data to memory for storage. The control circuit
makes sure that successive data points are stored in successive memory locations by continually
updating the memory’s address counter.
When memory is full, the next data point from the ADC is stored in the first memory location
writing over the old data, and so on for successive data points. This data acquisition and the
storage process continue until the control circuit receives a trigger signal from either the input
waveform (internal trigger) or an external trigger source. When the triggering occurs, the system
stops acquiring data further and enters the display mode of operation, in which all or part of the
memory data is repetitively displayed on the Cathode Ray Tube (CRT).
In display operation two DACs are employed for providing the vertical and horizontal deflecting
voltages for the cathode ray tube. Data from memory produce the vertical deflection of the
electron beam, while the time base counter provides the horizontal deflection in the form of a
staircase sweep signal. The control circuits synchronize the display operation by incrementing
the memory address counter and the time base counter at the same time so that each horizontal
step of the electron beam is accompanied by a new data value from the memory to the vertical
DAC.

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The counters are continuously recycled so that the stored data points are repetitively re-plotted
on the screen of the CRT. The screen display consists of discrete dots representing the various
data points but the number of dots is usually so large (typically 1000 or more) that they tend to
blend together and appear to be a continuous waveform.
Applications of a CRO
1. To trace and measure a signal throughout the RF, IF and AF channels of radio and
television receivers.
2. To effectively adjust the FM receivers, broadband high-frequency RF
3. In amplifiers and automatic frequency control circuits;
4. To test AF circuits for different types of distortions and other spurious oscillations.
5. To display different wave shapes such as sine waves, square waves and their many
different combinations
6. To trace transistor curves
7. To visually show the composite synchronized TV signal
8. To display the response of tuned circuits etc.
9. To measurement of ac/dc voltages,
10. For finding B/H curves for hysteresis loop,
11. To perform engine pressure analysis,
12. For the study of stress, strain, torque, acceleration etc.,
13. For frequency and phase determination by using Lissajous figures,
14. To study radiation patterns of antenna, and to find amplifier gain,
Signal generators
Introduction
A signal generator is commonly known with different name like test signal generator, tone
generator, waveform generator, frequency generator, digital pattern generator, function
generator, etc.
A signal generator is an electronic device which produces repetitive or non- repetitive a
controlled electronic signals or output waveforms (either analog or in digital patterns). These
signals are widely utilized in testing, designing, troubleshooting and repairing electronic devices
The signal generators can be classified into the following categories.
i. Audio generators ii. Function generators iii. Pulse generators iv. RF generators v. Frequency
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Synthesizers .
Classification of signal generators :

(i) Audio Frequency (AF) oscillators—frequency rage is 20 Hz to 20 kHz

(ii) Radio Frequency (RF) oscillators—frequency range is 20 kHz to 30 MHz
(iii) Video Frequency oscillators—frequency range is dc to 5 MHz
(iv) High Frequency (HF) oscillators—frequency range is 1.5 MHz to 30 MHz
(v) Very High Frequency (VHF) oscillators—frequency range is 30 MHz to 300 MHz
Standard Signal Generator:
A standard generator produces known and controllable voltages. It is used as power source for
the measurement of gain, signal to noise ratio (S/N), bandwidth, standing wave ratio and other
properties. It is extensively used in the testing of radio receivers and transmitters.
The block diagram of standard signal generator is shown below.

The carrier frequency is generated by a very stable RF oscillator using an LC tank circuit, having
a constant output over any frequency range. The frequency of oscillations is indicated by the
frequency range control. AM is provided by an internal sine wave generator or from an external
source. Modulation is done in the output amplifier circuit. This amplifier delivers the output,
modulation carrier to an attenuator. The output voltage is read by an output meter and the
attenuator output setting.
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It is used as power source for the measurement of gain, signal to noise ratio (S/N), bandwidth,
standing wave ratio and other properties. It is extensively used in the testing of radio receivers
and transmitters.
Audio signal generator: As the name implies this type of signal generator is used for audio
applications. Signal generators such as these run over the audio range, typically from about 20 Hz
to 20 kHz and more. They are often used in audio measurements of frequency response and for
distortion measurements. As a result they must have a very flat response and also very low levels
of harmonic distortion.
The major difference between a function generator and an audio generator is in the number of
output waveforms. The audio signal generator produces only sine waves and square waves.
While almost all function generators produce these basic waveforms plus triangular waves.
Besides this, some function generators also produce sawtooth, pulse and non-symmetrical square
waves.
Pulse generator: As the name suggests, the pulse generator is a form of signal generator that
creates pulses. These signal generators are often in the form of logic pulse generators that can
produce pulses with variable delays and some even offer variable rise and fall time.
A typical pulse generator will allow the user to select the repetition rate, duration, amplitude and
number of output pulses to be output in a given burst. The most common frequency range is from
1 Hz to 50 MHz . The pulse width is adjustable from 10 ns to over 10 ms and the output is
variable from 3 mV to 30 V.
The pulse generators are used to test
a.Memory circuits
b.Shift registers
d.Counters
e.Other digital components, subsystems and systems.
Function Generator
A function generator is a signal source which can produce different types of waveforms as its
output signal. The most common output waveforms are sine-waves, triangular waves, square
waves, and saw tooth waves. The triangular-wave and saw tooth wave outputs of function
generators are commonly used in driving sweep oscillators in oscilloscopes and the X-axis of X-
Y recorders.

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The frequencies of the waveforms may be adjusted from a fraction of a hertz to several hundreds
of kHz.
The block diagram of a function generator is shown in below figure. Here, the frequency is
controlled by varying the magnitude of the current that drives the integrator.
The frequency controlled voltage regulates two current supply sources. Current supply source 1
supplies a constant current to the integrator whose output voltage rises linearly with time. An
increase or decrease in the current increases or reduces the slope of the output voltage and thus
controls the frequency.
A constant current is supplied to the integrator by current supply source 1. Due to this, the
voltage of the integrator rises linearly with respect to time. This linear rise is according to the

output signal voltage equation:

Any increase or decrease in the current will resultantly increase or decrease the slope of the
voltage at the output and thus controls the frequency.
A reverse current is supplied to the integrator by current source 2. This reverse current cause
drops in the output of integrator linearly with time. As before this time also, when the output
attains a predetermined level, the comparator again changes its state and switches to current
supply source 1.
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The voltage comparator multivibrator changes state at a predetermined maximum level, of the
integrator output voltage. This change cuts-off the current supply from supply source 1 and
switches to the supply source 2. The current supply source 2 supplies a reverse current to the
integrator so that its output drops linearly with time. When the output attains a predetermined
level, the voltage comparator again changes state and switches on to the current supply
source. The output of the integrator is a triangular wave whose frequency depends on the current
supplied by the constant current supply sources. The comparator output provides a square wave
of the same frequency as output. The resistance diode network changes the slope of the triangular
wave as its amplitude changes and produces a sinusoidal wave with less than 1% distortion.

Comparison between Signal Generator and Function Generator:

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