Electronic – Matching oscilloscope impedance to detector

impedance-matchingoscilloscope

I have a detector with a preamp that has an output impedance of \$50\Omega\$. My oscilloscope has an input impedance of \$1\rm{M}\Omega\$ and capacitance of 16pF. The signals I'm interested in are on the order of 10MHz. What is the effect of my oscilloscope not being matched to the preamp?

Best Answer

As mentioned in one of the comments if the cable is short there will be very little effect at 10MHz - short means that the cable is much less than one wavelength. For example the delay through 1 meter of cable will be ~5ns, the reflection will get back to the amplifier in another ins giving a 10s round trip. This is 10% of the 10MHz upper limit that you have.

The gain of the amplifier will be double the calibrated value (i.e. a 20dB amplifier will have a voltage gain of 26dB in this condition).

The rolloff of 16pF and 50Ohms will be 3dB @ 200MHz so nothing to worry about.

If the scope does not have a 50 ohm input selection and you want to terminate the cable correctly I would use a BNC T connector plugged into the scope with a 50 Ohm terminator in one of the ports and the input signal into the other.

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