Innovation that Drives Innovation

As a child, Stefan Grönbeck took apart a radio just to see how it worked. Now an experienced electronic design engineer at Siemens Digital Industries, he focusses on information electronics for variable speed drives. And to do it, he relies on our 5 Series Mixed Signal Oscilloscope.

Stefan Grönbeck of Siemens Digital Industries working with the Tektonix MSO58.

Find more about the product mentioned in this story here:

• 5 Series Mixed Signal Oscilloscope

Siemens Digital Industries leads the way in innovation and technology for automation. It works closely with discrete and process manufacturers, as a partner to customers from across the broad spectrum of industries – like aerospace, automotive and machine building. The team at Siemens helps them meet the challenges and opportunities presented by digitalization – a core issue for automated processes.

To that end, Siemens has an engineering lab in Erlangen, Germany, tasked with automation technology design. For electronics, that means strict security standards for board design, and extensive testing.

To test the power up and power down sequencing of processor systems and peripherals with various power supplies, Stefan and his team need a reliable, large screen oscilloscope with at least four channels. The 5 Series MSO's eight FlexChannel™ inputs suit their work perfectly.

According to Stefan, the 8 FlexChannelsTM are wonderful as well as using the industry's largest HD display is also "very helpful. I monitor the rise of various power supplies of a processor in overlay mode, with all voltages aligned to a common zero Volt line. So I can track the correct operation throughout power up or power down, according to the specification."

"We also often use bus decoding functions like SPI or I2C. Together with the sizeable memory, the large screen makes them easy to handle."

The innovative pinch-swipe-zoom touchscreen user interface has its fans, too. “My colleagues in the Siemens lab are impressed by how simple it is to use the 5 Series MSO,” says Stefan. "Everything can be found without much explanation and feels comfortable to use."

For Stefan, who has never lost his childhood interest in solving complex problems, using the scope means more time and energy to devote to creating perfection. He's constantly developing new techniques and exploring ways to improve the products he works on, without driving up costs. And he's always delighted to see their popularity grow and production expand.

"Since 1993, I've prototyped a number of boards that are now being used widely. If I were to put all of them in a room, they'd fill 100 square metres, which makes me extremely proud."

At Tektronix we support the problem solvers, like Stefan Grönbeck from Siemens Digital Industries. The relentlessly curious engineers. The people who push the boundaries in science and technology to start making tomorrow better, today.

We're Tektronix, and we're for the engineer.