Harmonic Time Interleaving With Analog Mixing for Oscilloscope Sampling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing oscilloscope technologies face limitations in extending bandwidth and sample rate, often requiring complex digital signal processing and software mixers for signal reconstruction, which can be inefficient and reduce signal-to-noise ratio.
Innovation Solution
The harmonic time interleave (HTI) system employs analog mixers and optimized delay of radio frequency signals to increase bandwidth and sample rate, allowing signal reconstruction through simple time domain interleave of digitizer outputs without the need for software mixers, using a common reference oscillator with harmonics applied to all mixers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If complex digital signal processing and software mixers are used for signal reconstruction, then bandwidth and sample rate can be extended, but signal-to-noise ratio deteriorates and processing efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces complex digital signal processing and software mixers with simple analog time-domain interleaving. By using multiple digitizers with staggered timing to capture different portions of the high-frequency signal and then interleaving these samples in the time domain, the system achieves bandwidth extension without introducing the noise and complexity of digital reconstruction methods
Solution Approach 2:
The patent divides the high-frequency signal acquisition into multiple parallel channels, each capturing a segment of the signal with slightly different timing. These segmented acquisitions are then combined through time-domain interleaving to reconstruct the complete high-bandwidth signal, avoiding the need for complex processing of the entire signal at once
2Speed
If complex digital signal processing is used for signal reconstruction, then bandwidth extension is achieved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent substitutes complex digital signal processing operations with simple time-domain sample interleaving. Instead of using software mixers and extensive DSP algorithms to reconstruct the signal, the system simply combines samples from multiple digitizers in temporal sequence, dramatically reducing computational complexity while maintaining bandwidth extension capabilities
3Speed
If software mixers are used for frequency translation, then bandwidth multiplication is achieved, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs the frequency translation and signal separation in advance through the hardware timing arrangement of the digitizers, rather than performing it afterward through software processing. By pre-staggering the digitizer timing to capture different frequency portions simultaneously, the system eliminates the need for time-consuming post-acquisition frequency translation operations
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
HTI systems achieve higher bandwidth and sample rates with reduced digital signal processing requirements, optimizing signal-to-noise ratio and efficiency by eliminating the need for software mixers and frequency translation, enabling faster and more efficient signal acquisition.
Implementation Method 1
uses analog mixers in the path to standard interleaved digitizer blocks
Data Source
AI summary
A harmonic time interleave (HTI) system can include a sample clock to provide a reference signal, a summing component to receive the reference signal and a second input, a splitter component to receive an input signal, and delay blocks to each receive an output from the splitter. The HTI system can also include digitizing components to receive the reference signal from the sample clock and an output from each of the mixing components, and a poly-phase filter matrix block to receive an output from each of the digitizing components. The HTI system can also include an interleave reconstruction block to receive an output from the poly-phase filter matrix block and interleave time domain signal samples from each digitizer to create a reconstructed waveform.