The Tektronix 7000 Oscilloscope series

The Tektronix 7000 series is a wonderful addition to any test bench. They are solidly made and often have interesting circuitry. The wide range of plug-ins provide a study upgrade path. If there is one complaint, it is the use of Tek custom ICs. However, given the choice of some piece of unknown 'scope and a Tek 7000, isn't the choice perfectly clear? I'll never understand how someone can buy a random brand when they could have bought a used Tek. Tektronix also has a FAQ for their 7000 series. It tells you about the year of introduction of each mainframe and plugin and not much more.

I have some preliminary notes on interfacing to the 7000 series .

The creation of ebay's test equipment category has resulted in a lot of 7000 equipment on the market.

Here's my mapping from mainframe numbers to specification. A mainframe has 4 digits: 7BTS, where B is the bandwidth, T is the type and S is the number of slots.

Mainframe quick reference
DigitBandwidth (MHz)Type
0 Normal
11000Storage or digitizer
2 Storage
365Storage
460Dual beam
5100Computerized
6100 
7175/200 
8400 
9500 

An illustrated guide to the Tektronix 7000 series

Mainframes
MainframeBW(Mhz)Comments
7103/4 1000Highest speed mainframe (03 is rackmount)
731365Seldom seen
740360Slowest mainframe
7503/4100Sometimes seen
7603 100Common mainframe; also USM-281 without readout
7612D 100Programmable digitizer
7613 7613 mainframe 100Variable Persistence
7623 7623 mainframe100Multimode Storage
7633 7633 mainframe100Multimode Storage
7704/A150/200A is 200. non A is 150 MHz
7834 7834 mainframe400Fast storage
7844 7844 mainframe400Dual beam; also in rack mount
7854 7854 mainframe400Digital storage, IEEE 488; needs calculator keyboard for full use
7903/4 7904 mainframe500A is improved; rack mount is 03
7912/AD/HD500Flying spot scanner; needs 7A16P/7B90P
7934 500Fastest storage

Vertical Amplifiers
AmplifierBW(Mhz)ZinSens.Comments
7A11 7A11 picture2501M5mV-20VBuiltin active probe
7A12120 5mV-5VDual trace w/ push buttons
7A13 7A13 picture7A13 led picture1001M1mV-5VDiff comparator 10K CMRR; comes in mechanical and LED readout
7A14120#160;1ma-1AAC current probe amp (needs P6201)
7A15/A/N 7A15 picture80 5mv-5V
7A16/A/P 7A16 picture150/22550/1M5mV-5VA is 255 Mhz; P prog.
7A17150n.a.n.a.Customizable, rare
7A18/N 7A18 picture751M5mV-5VDual trace; 06 option?
7A19 7A19 picture6005010mV-1V 
7A21N 7A21N picture1 Ghz50directHigh speed GR-874 inputs, goes directly to mainframe vertical amp; doesn't fit in 7854
7A22 7A22 picture1 10uV-10VDiff amplifier 100K CMRR
7A24 7A24 picture400505mV-1VDual trace
7A26 7A26 picture200505mV-5VDual trace
7A29/P7a29p picture 10005010mV-1VSingle trace
7A42 7A42 picture350  4 trace digital
067-0587 067-0587 picture   Special calibration fixture for mainframes, -00 is 200 MHz, -01 is 500 Mhz and -02 is 1 GHz (710x)

Time bases
Time basefastest t/div(ns)Comments
7B100.2for use with 710x
7B150.2Delaying version of 7B10
7B50/A 7B50A picture5A is 150 Mhz
7B515Delaying sweep
7B525Dual channel
7B53A/N 7B53A picture5Delaying version
7B702 
7B712Delaying
7B807B80 picture1 
7B857B85 picture2 
7B872For use with 7854, has pretrigger
7B90P2For use with 7912AD, programmable
7B92/A 7B92 picture0.5Dual time base

Miscellaneous
MiscNotes
7CT1NCurve tracer
7D017D01 pictureLogic analyzer; hard to find pods
7D02Logic analyzer
DF01Display formatter
DF02Display formatter
7D10Digital event delay (D11 is later version)
7D11Digital event/time delay
7D12A/D (needs modules M1, M2 or M3)
7D13Multimeter
7D14Digital Counter to 525 MHz
7D15Universal Counter/timer to 225 MHz
7D207D20 pictureDigital storage ; 488
7F10Optical/Electrical [v. rare]
7K11CATV Preamp (for Spectrum Analyzers)
7L5Spectrum Analyzer 20Hz-5Mhz
7L12Spectrum Analyzer 100 kHz-1.8 Ghz
7L13Spectrum Analyzer 1 kHz-1.8 Ghz
7L14Spectrum Analyzer 10 kHz-1.8 Ghz (digital)
7L18Spectrum Analyzer 1.5Ghz-18 Ghz
7M13Display "keyboard"
M1DMM module
M2Sample/hold module
M3True RMS module

Sampling plug-ins
SamplingNotes
7S117S11 pictureVertical amp for plugins
7S12 7S12 pictureTDR/Sampler
7S14 7S14 pictureNo head sampler. 1GHz limit
7T11 7T11 pictureTime base; also comes in A (bug fixes)
7M1175 ns delay unit (coaxial)

Sampling slot plug-ins
UnitBW(Ghz)Notes
S11 350 ps risetime
S2 s2 picture4.6 75 ps risetime
S3/A1Probe, 350 ps risetime
S4 s4 picture1425 ps risetime, trigger pickoff
S50.350slowest head
S611.530 ps risetime; TDR feedthru
S426.5 GHzOpto-Electrical converter [v. rare]
S5025 psPulser
S5118 GHzTrigger countdown
S5225 psPulser
S531 GHzTrigger Recognizer for 7S12
S541 nsSlowest pulser

Thanks to Richard Hager, David DiGiacomo, Alan Shoemake, John Westlake and John Colaw for assistance in compiling this table. And thanks to everyone who emailed saying thanks!

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File last written on 2011-03-09 at 11:03
e-mail: mark.kahrs at gmail daht com
home page:http://www.kahrs.us/~mark