Consumer electronic products are getting smaller. Electronic
systems in new cars and trucks are more prevalent. The
aerospace and defense industries are also tightening
environmental specifications as designs become smaller and
more versatile.
These trends require that the instrumentation used in all
phases of development – design, debug, and validation
– work well in increasingly severe environments. These
environments especially pose challenges for oscilloscopes
and probes.
The probe challenges are due to drastic temperature swings,
difficult to access or tiny DUTs (devices under test), as
well as some mechanical considerations. The good news
is that with some care, a simple understanding of what to
expect in these extreme environments, and with a measure
of common sense, it’s possible to make high quality
reliable measurements using readily available probes and
accessories.
Extreme probing can be thought of as any probing situation
in which, without proper consideration, it’s possible to cause
damage to probes and accessories, or make an unreliable
or poor measurement. Common hacks that engineers use to
make these measurements often have dire consequences
when it comes to signal integrity.
Other extreme situations can lead to probe failure, no matter
what steps are taken. In these cases there are several
strategies that can help extend probe life as long as possible.
Let’s examine some of these situations.
Introduction