Delay line

The purpose of delay lines in oscilloscopes is to allow observation of the leading edge of the trigger event. There is typically a trigger pick-off, which supplies an undelayed copy of the vertical signal to the the trigger and sweep circuitry. Trigger and sweep circuitry needs about 60ns to take action when presented with the trigger event. Without a delay line, the trigger event would already have come and gone before the scope can trigger and sweep. By sending the input signal through a delay line, the scope will have triggered and begun sweeping by the time the trigger event is emerging from the delay line.

The first Tektronix scope to contain a delay line was the 513D, which uses an L-C network. Soon after, the 517 appeared, using a coaxial cable as a delay line. 7000-series scopes use special twin-lead delay cables. The delay line in the 519 is a large coil of low-loss air-dielectric semi-rigid coax.

The location of the delay line in the instrument block diagram varies:

• Delay at input: 4S1, 1S1
• Delay between amplifiers: 517, 7000 series scopes, 315
• Delay between amplifier and CRT: 516, 533, 551, 555

There are four main ways delay lines are implemented in Tektronix scopes:

• Conventional coaxial cable: 517, 4S1, 1S1
• Semi-rigid coax: 519, 113
• Unshielded helically wound differential transmission line: 581, 585
• Helically wound differential transmission line inside braided shield: 545B, 547
• L-C: 511AD, 513D, 541, 545, 551, 555

The purpose of delay lines in sampling scopes is the same as for conventional non-sampling scopes. Since sampling scopes are often used for observing fast pulses, delay lines are often problematic since they have dispersion, and therefore distort pulse waveforms. For example, the 4S1 contains a delay network while the 4S2 does not. Because of this, the 4S2 is a less convenient instrument, but has faster rise-time the the 4S1. One way around the trade-off between pulse response and convenience is to use random sampling. Random sampling is provided by the 3T2 and other sampling sweep modules.