WAVERUNNER Xi-A AND MXi-A SERIES
20 WRXi-A-GSM-E Rev A
LeCroyalsooffersavarietyofpassiveandactiveprobesforusewithyour
WaveRunnerXiSeriesoscilloscope.Visitwww.lecroy.com
forspecificationsand
orderinginformation.
Current
Probes
CurrentProbesmeasurethecurrentpassingthroughawire.They
donotusethetraditionalprobingstyleofplacingatipontoatest
point.Instead,awireisplacedinsideofthejawoftheprobe,which
thenallowstheprobetomeasurethecurrent(inAmps).
Active
Probes
Therearetwodifferenttypesofactiveprobes:single‐endedand
differential.
Single‐ended:Asingle‐endedactiveprobeisassociatedwith
measuringvoltagesathighfrequencies.Measurementwithan
activeproberequiresatestpointandagroundpoint.Theground
(alsocalledearth)actsasazeroreferencefo
rthetestpoint
measurement.
Differential:Differentialactiveprobesareliketwoprobesinone.
Insteadofmeasuringatestpointinrelationtoagroundpoint(like
single‐endedactiveprobes),differentialprobesmeasurethe
differenceinvoltageofatestpointinrelationtoanothertestpoint.
Passive
Probes
Passiveprobesmeasurevoltagesatlowerfrequencies(<400MHz).
Theyhavehigherinputcapacitance(inputC)anddonotneed
powertooperate(unlikeactiveprobes).Athigherfrequencies,
higherinputcapacitanceloadsthetestcircuit,attenuatingthe
signal.Thisiswhyactiveprobesareusedinhighfrequency
applications.P
assiveprobesalsomeasurevoltageinreferenceto
ground.
High
Voltage
Probes
Theseareactivesingleendedprobesthataredesignedtomeasure
highvoltages(safely).Theymeasurethevoltageinreferenceto
ground.
ProbeCompensation
Passiveprobesmustbecompensatedtoflattenovershoot.Thisisaccomplishedby
meansofatrimmerattheconnectorendoftheprobe.
1. Attachtheconnectorendofsuppliedpassiveprobetoanychannel.
2. ConnecttheprobeendtotheCALoutputconnectoratthefrontofthe
oscilloscope.