An oscilloscope's trigger function is crucial for clear signal characterization because it is what synchronizes the horizontal sweep at the correct point of the signal. Trigger controls allow you to stabilize repetitive waveforms and capture single-shot waveforms.

Edge triggering is the basic and most common type. Advanced trigger controls enable you to isolate specific events of interest to optimize the oscilloscope's sample rate and record length.

You can trigger on pulses defined by amplitude (such as runt pulses), qualified by time (pulse width, glitch, slew rate, setup-and-hold and time-out), and delineated by logic state or pattern (logic triggering). Optional trigger controls are designed specifically to examine communications signals. In addition, the intuitive user interface on all Tektronix oscilloscopes allows rapid setup of trigger parameters with wide flexibility in the test setup to maximize your productivity.

Ø Runt Pulse Triggering. Runt triggering allows you to capture and examine pulses that cross one logic threshold, but not both.

Ø Pulse Width Triggering. Using pulse width triggering, you can monitor a signal indefinitely and trigger on the first occurrence of a pulse whose duration (pulse width) is outside the allowable limits.

Ø Glitch Triggering. Glitch triggering allows you to trigger on digital pulses when they are shorter or longer than a user-defined time limit. This trigger control enables you to examine the causes of even rare glitches and their effects on other signals.

Ø Slew Rate Triggering. High frequency signals with slew rates faster than expected or needed can radiate troublesome energy. Slew rate triggering surpasses conventional edge triggering by adding the element of time and allowing you to selectively trigger on fast or slow edges.

Ø Setup-and-Hold Triggering. Only setup-and-hold triggering lets you deterministically trap a single violation of setup-and-hold time that would almost certainly be missed by using other trigger modes. This trigger mode makes it easy to capture specific signal quality and timing details when a synchronous data signal fails to meet setup-and-hold specifications.

Ø Time-out Triggering. Time-out triggering lets you trigger on an event without waiting for the trigger pulse to end, by triggering based on a specified time lapse.

Ø Logic Triggering. Logic triggering allows you to trigger on any logical combination of available input channels - especially useful in verifying the operation of digital logic.

Ø Communication Triggering. Optionally available on certain oscilloscope models, these trigger modes address the need to acquire a wide variety of Alternate-Mark Inversion (AMI), Code-Mark Inversion (CMI), and Non-Return to Zero (NRZ) communication signals.