Hi EEVers,
Thanks for all the square wave examples.
Just to confirm, there were a few motivations/intentions embedded in the original post:
1. Best quality achievable at given frequencies - what is the best looking square wave that can be produced at various frequencies (such as 1, 5, 10, 20, and 30 MHz)? This is independent of the price of the equipment used. It's interesting to see what types of generators, test leads, and scopes are out there and what they can produce. Some generators are perhaps optimized for square waves and perhaps pulses, others might be more multi-function. Again, just looking to see what equipment can produce a good looking square wave. (A bit off topic but it appeared that some scopes produce especially nice text and numeric readouts that make the values being measured very clear at a glance - 0xdeadbeef's Hameg HMO2024 looked pretty nice.)
2. Definition of quality - this is related to item 1 but beyond the generators, test leads, and scopes involved is the notion of "what constitutes a good looking square wave?" No doubt rise time is a key attribute but perhaps there are other attributes to consider (such as how much ringing, etc?).
3. Cost to achieve quality - given that various setups produce various levels of square wave quality, which generators (and test leads) are the most cost-effective for each frequency (1, 5, 10, 20, and 30 MHz)?
(PS, What inspired all this was some recent testing of a couple generators; I was curious to see what "par for the course" is at the various frequencies.) Thanks and please feel free to keep posting square wave images and any related info along with questions and comments, of course. EF