Basic Operation 
DSO4000 Series Digital Storage Oscilloscope                                                                                                             18 
waveform not being triggered. This is especially true if the signal is periodic or random (such as 
noise). 
Note: You should trigger and position transient or burst waveforms as close as possible to 
the screen center. 
Nyquist Frequency 
The highest frequency that any real-time digital oscilloscope can measure without errors is half of 
the sample rate, which is called the Nyquist frequency. Frequency information beyond the Nyquist 
frequency is undersampled which brings about the FFT aliasing. The math function can convert 
the  center  2048  points of  the  time-domain waveform  to  an  FFT spectrum.  The  resulting  FFT 
spectrum  contains  1024  points  from  DC  (0Hz)  to  the  Nyquist  frequency.  Usually,  the  screen 
compresses the FFT spectrum horizontally to 250 points, but you can use the FFT Zoom function 
to expand the FFT spectrum so that you can clearly view the frequency components at each of the 
1024 data points in the FFT spectrum. 
Note: The oscilloscope’s vertical response is a little bit larger than its bandwidth (70MHz, 
100MHz or 200MHz, depending on the model; or 20MHz when the Bandwidth Limit option is 
set to Limited). Therefore, the FFT spectrum can display valid frequency information above 
the  oscilloscope  bandwidth.  However,  the  amplitude  information  near  or  above  the 
bandwidth will not be accurate. 
2.7.2.2  Displaying FFT Spectrum 
Push the MATH MENU button to display the Math menu. Use the options to select the Source 
channel,  the  Window  algorithm  and  the  FFT  Zoom  factor.  Only  one  FFT  spectrum  can  be 
displayed at a time.