Spectrum Analyzer

The Spectrum Analyzer instrument measures the magnitude of an input signal versus its frequency.

The Spectrum Analyzer uses the oscilloscope channels to acquire input signals. Because of this, all instruments that use the oscilloscope channels will cease acquisition when the Spectrum Analyzer begins sampling.


1. Menu

See Menu in Common Interfaces.

1.1. View

 

2. Control

The control toolbar by default only shows the important options. The down/up arrow in the top-right corner shows/hides the other features. This toolbar contains the following:

 

3. Traces

3.1. Magnitude


 

3.2. Channel

The options in the drop-down menu allow configuration of each oscilloscope channel as follows: Offset, Range, Attenuation, and Sample Mode; and to configure trigger. Having the Auto option for Range, the range is adjusted based on Magnitude Top value.

 

3.3. Trace

The Add Trace drop-down menu contains:

Up to eight traces can be added. For each trace the following options can be individually configured:

The options drop-down contains the following settings:

 

4. Plot

The main spectrum plot shows the magnitude versus frequency. About frequency settings see the Control toolbar and Magnitude options.

See Plots in Common Interfaces.

 

4.1 HotTrack

See HotTrack in Common Interfaces.
Having the mouse cursor in the upper half of the plot, the HotTrack will search and position at a nearby peak. In the lower half of the plot it is not searching for peaks.

 

4.2. Cursors

See Cursors in Common interfaces.

 

5. Views

5.1. Time

The time plot shows the last oscilloscope acquisition. This view is used to help adjusting optimal offset and range for each channel.

 

5.2. Measurements

The Measurements view shows the list of the selected measurements. The first column in the list shows the channel, the second shows the name, the third shows the measurement value, the fourth displays the frequency, and the fifth shows the alias frequency for components, along with some other measurements. At the top are Add and Remove and Options drop-down button.

Pressing the Add button opens the Add Measurements window. On the left side is the channel list, and on the right side is a tree view containing the measurement types in groups. Pressing the Add button here (or double-clicking an item) will add it to the measurement list.

The measurement options:

 

Constant

 

Dynamic

 

Harmonics

 

5.3. Components

The components view shows the spectral component list for the chosen trace ordered by magnitude. The count parameter sets the number of component to list.

 

5.4. Cursors

See Cursors.

 

6. Export

See Export in Common Interfaces.