Lossy coax alone does not cure the probe problem as it still has reflections/ringing and requires damping in the probe termination and peaking to compensate for the loss in HF response.
This is the probe termination box of a Tektronix P6105 which is spec'd at 100Mhz. It is a pretty basic Kobbe-Polits scope probe using a lead-lag network. Not the best scope probe as it does produce reflections at the probe tip and has less waveform fidelity compared to Tek and other higher quality probes.
Tek P6105, Term box side:
Tek P6105, Term box bottom:
This is Tektronix P6106 probe (200Mhz) termination box, it has two inductors and a LOT more Trimmer and Cap adjustments. Why is this?
Tektronix P6106, termination box's other side:
Scope probes of this design work well, have low internal reflections with good pulse and frequency response.
Answer to this can be found starting at page 15 in this Tektronix probe book from 1969.
http://www.davmar.org/TE/TekConcepts/TekProbeCircuits.pdfA bit of probe development history:
http://www.vintagetek.org/oscilliscope-patents/Low quality, poorly designed and produced probes are a MAJOR source of measurement error. This coupled with inadequate probe application and insensitivity to how the circuit behaves when probed ADDs to the measurement errors. Passive probes are the most error prone due to their loading at HF, probe reflections and grounding problems. Active probes can make a BIG difference when properly applied, Zo and numerous other probe variations can make the different between low circuit reaction to being probed with good waveform-waveshape fidelity and extreme measurement error. Analog folks can be extremely demanding on probe performance. Every lump, bump, ring and all manner of wave shape aberration can have meaning directly related to circuit behavior.
This is the probe termination box from the P6015 HV probe, it is not a simple network and is LOTs of fun to set up. These are often found with the termination box completely out of whack which results in lumpy, bumpy pulse & frequency response. Getting one of these properly adjusted is a good network learning experience.
Bernice
Beyond this, this design does not account for probe cable reflections or impedance mis-matches.
When was the last time probe cable reflections and mis-matches have ever been an issue? Passive probes use lossy coax to prevent any significant signal reflections from appearing despite the gross mismatch between the unknown source impedance, the probe, the probe's cable and the scope's input.