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Showing posts with label ground blade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ground blade. Show all posts

22 May 2014

The Effects of Passive Probe Ground Leads

Teledyne LeCroy's PP108, a representative passive probe
Figure 1: Teledyne LeCroy's PP108,
a representative passive probe
When you open the box containing your shiny new oscilloscope, one of the items you'll likely find inside is a set of basic 10:1 passive probes (Figure 1). Those probes have a ground lead that you'll want to use when you make measurements. Your probe has a bandwidth specification that's probably somewhere between a few hundred megahertz to 1 GHz; that spec was obtained at the factory with a specialized test jig having a specific ground inductance and source impedance. Now, the way in which you connect your ground lead can have a big impact on the real-world bandwidth and response of the probe.