N

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The Tektronix Type N is a sampling plug-in for 500-series scopes. It was the first sampler produced by Tektronix. Its risetime is specified to be under 600 picoseconds.

Type N was introduced in 1960, superseded by the Type 661 Sampling Oscilloscope system a year later, and discontinued in 1964.

Type N is a complete sampling subsystem, using the 500-series oscilloscope just as a power supply and a display. The oscilloscope is operated in X-Y mode and gets its horizontal signal from the Type N plug-in instead of from the scope's sweep circuitry. The input signal is applied through a 50 Ω GR-874 connector.

The sampling circuit of the Type N is primitive. It uses a single diode, the "interrogate diode", D5480. The strobe pulse is added to the input signal using a passive summing circuit. Consequently, the amplitude of the kick-out pulse from the input is high, about 150 mV.

The vertical scale of the Type N is fixed at 10 mV/cm, making Type N one of the few Tektronix plug-ins with fixed vertical gain. In practice, attenuators such as the 017-011 can be placed in the signal path, external to the Type N, to achieve the desired sensitivity. Using an input attenuator also has the effect of attenuating the kick-out pulse seen by the device under test.

According to Stefan Graef (http://www.messmuseum.de/tek661.htm),

The engineer behind the N was Norm Winningstad. He worked at Hughes Aircraft Electronics Division and was offered a job at HP's oscilloscope division to join their Sampling Scope team. After getting informed about the work he went to Tektronix developing the N (according to: "A narrative history of Hewlett-Packard from 1939-1990" by John Minck).

For calibration of the timebase of the Type N, the 013-028 Timing Standard was produced.

Type N units with serial numbers from 101 to 220 did not come with a probe power connector on the front panel. A field modification kit was sold to add the probe power connector. After serial number 220, probe power was included from the factory.

Key Specifications

Rise time	600 ps
Bandwidth	~580 MHz
Deflection	10 mV/Div (fixed)

See Also

• X013-032
• 013-028 Timing Standard

Pictures

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  Vertical signal path schematic

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  Block diagram

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  Calibration adaptor

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  Reference to Type N in 1961 General Electric Tunnel Diode Manual

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