Digital Edge Trigger Circuit for Full Bandwidth Oscilloscope Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
High-bandwidth oscilloscopes face difficulties in developing analog trigger circuits that operate at the full signal bandwidth due to high power consumption and signal routing challenges, especially with sample rates exceeding 100 Gigasamples per second.
Innovation Solution
A measurement system with a digital edge trigger circuit utilizing N time-interleaved ADCs and processors connected in a daisy chain configuration, where each processor performs edge trigger detection algorithms to determine threshold level crossings, sharing information to identify early and late samples below or above threshold values, enabling efficient detection at the full signal bandwidth.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If analog trigger circuits are used in high-bandwidth oscilloscopes, then trigger detection can be performed, but power consumption increases and signal routing becomes complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the analog trigger circuit (comparator-based continuous-time system) with a digital trigger circuit that operates on discrete-time sampled data. The digital circuit uses logic operations on digitized signal values instead of analog voltage comparisons, eliminating the need for high-bandwidth analog comparators and reducing power consumption while maintaining trigger detection capability at full signal bandwidth
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the operating parameters of the trigger circuit by transitioning from continuous-time analog operation to discrete-time digital operation. The trigger detection is performed on sampled data values rather than continuous analog voltages, allowing the circuit to operate at the full bandwidth of the ADC without requiring analog components to operate beyond their optimal frequency ranges
2Reliability
If analog trigger circuits are used in high-bandwidth oscilloscopes, then trigger detection can be performed, but signal routing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the analog trigger circuit (comparator-based continuous-time system) with a digital trigger circuit that operates on discrete-time sampled data. The digital circuit uses logic operations on digitized signal values instead of analog voltage comparisons, eliminating the need for high-bandwidth analog comparators and reducing power consumption while maintaining trigger detection capability at full signal bandwidth
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the trigger detection function from the analog signal path and relocates it to the digital domain. By performing trigger detection on digitized data values after ADC conversion, the system eliminates the need for complex analog signal routing and high-bandwidth analog comparators, simplifying the overall signal path while maintaining full-bandwidth operation
3Use of energy by moving object
If digital trigger circuits operate on digitized data, then power consumption is reduced, but processing all comparison results at full sample rate creates challenges
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the processing of trigger detection by dividing the full sample rate data stream into manageable units. The digital trigger circuit processes comparison results in a structured manner, evaluating logic conditions on sampled values sequentially or in parallel groups, which reduces the instantaneous processing burden while maintaining full-bandwidth operation capability
Data Source
AI summary
A measurement system is provided that has a digital edge trigger circuit that is capable of operating at the full signal bandwidth of the measurement system. The digital edge trigger circuit comprises a plurality of processors that process time-interleaved digital data samples output from respective time-interleaved ADCs to perform edge trigger detection. The processors share edge detection information with one another to increase the speed at which edge trigger detection is performed to enable the digital edge trigger circuit to operate at the full signal bandwidth of the measurement system.