There's a moment on every project when the circuit stops behaving and you need to see what's really going on. That's when a good oscilloscope earns its place on the bench, and few names have earned it more often than Tektronix, which has been building them since 1946.
We've been a Tektronix Technical Partner since 2021, so our team knows the range inside out and will help you pick the right scope rather than the most expensive one. Starting out? The TBS1052C-EDU is made for teaching labs. Lecturers can switch off AutoSet and automatic measurements, so students learn to find the signal themselves instead of letting the scope do the thinking. Step up to the TBS2000B and you get a 9" screen, four channels and a five-year warranty: a dependable workhorse for everyday debugging.
Need to take your measurements on the move? The 2 Series MSO weighs under 1.8kg and is barely thicker than a laptop, and with the optional battery pack it'll keep going for up to eight hours away from the mains. Working on anything wireless? The 3 Series MDO builds the spectrum analyser into the scope, so you can watch the time and frequency domains side by side without wheeling in a second instrument.
At the top of the range, the 4 Series B is built for power electronics and high-speed design, with 12-bit resolution on a 13.3" HD touchscreen. Best of all, bandwidth on the 3 and 4 Series is upgraded by licence. The 500MHz scope you buy today can become a 1GHz one when the next project demands it: no new instrument, and no fresh budget battle.
A scope is only as good as what connects it to the circuit, so it's worth pairing yours with the right Tektronix probes, and adding a function generator if you need to feed the circuit a known signal. Kitting out a whole teaching lab? Our Tektronix EDU range runs from the TBS1052C-EDU to the MSO22-EDU and MSO24-EDU, and our guide to bench equipment essentials for university labs covers what else belongs alongside them.