Oscilloscope Basics: Waveforms 101

By Dave Pereles, Technical Marketing Manager, Tektronix, Inc.

Recently, I had an opportunity to talk to some budding engineers about oscilloscopes. It turns out that working in the electronics industry has caused me to take more than a few things for granted. When they asked, “What’s a waveform?” I wasn’t prepared with a quick answer. This led to the notion that a blog post on basic waveforms might help those who are just starting to learn about those squiggles on their scope displays. While waveforms are important in many disciplines, such as biotechnology, chemistry, seismology, and many others, I’m going to stick to electronics. I invite others to add their thoughts on waveforms as well.