Improving Operating Voltage and Frequency Ranges in a Microcontroller-based Low-cost Oscilloscope

Although microcontroller-based oscilloscopes are popular for their low-cost implementation and compact form factor, their main disadvantages are that they are limited in operation to low frequency and voltage ranges. We propose a novel design for such an oscilloscope that offers 3x improvement in the input frequency range and 20x improvement in the input voltage swing with 2x lower bias power than other microcontroller-based oscilloscopes. It can detect frequencies of high practical ranges with good clarity using preset coding of the microcontroller. It can be connected to input voltages on a variable range scale so that precision and accuracy can be maintained adaptively with both low or high voltages. The oscilloscope is auto-calibrated and has an external reset option. It is inexpensive and portable, as well as power-saving. We have performed experiments to validate the functionality of the oscilloscope, which reflects that the design is practically implementable.