Smart Triggering System for Rare Anomaly Detection in Oscilloscopes
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Solution Overview
Problem
Modern digital oscilloscopes often miss rare electrical anomalies due to 'dead time' during post-acquisition processing, limiting their ability to detect infrequent signal glitches effectively.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a smart triggering system that captures signal history, analyzes anomalies, and generates modified trigger settings to detect and trigger on rare anomalies, eliminating dead time by continuously searching for signal mismatches and optimizing anomaly detection techniques.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional triggering hardware and software are used in low- and mid-range instruments, then basic triggering functionality is provided, but rare anomalies are missed due to dead time during post-acquisition processing
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by capturing and storing signal history data in acquisition memory before anomaly detection is needed. The acquisition engine continuously stores digitized signal samples, preparing the data in advance so that when anomaly detection is initiated, the analysis can proceed without waiting for new acquisitions, thereby eliminating dead time.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments the signal acquisition and analysis process into distinct functional blocks: an acquisition engine that captures signal history, an anomaly detector that analyzes stored data, and a trigger system that generates alerts. This segmentation allows the anomaly detector to independently process stored signal history without waiting for the acquisition engine to complete new cycles, eliminating post-acquisition dead time.
2Measurement precision
If post-acquisition processing is performed to detect anomalies, then anomaly detection is enabled, but dead time occurs during processing that causes rare anomalies to be missed
Solution Approach 1:
The acquisition engine operates continuously, constantly capturing and storing signal history data in the acquisition memory. This continuous operation ensures that signal history is always available for immediate analysis by the anomaly detector, eliminating idle processing time and maintaining continuous useful action throughout the system.
Solution Approach 2:
The acquisition memory serves as an intermediary buffer between the acquisition engine and the anomaly detector. It stores signal history data, allowing the anomaly detector to retrieve and analyze historical signals independently without blocking the acquisition process, thereby maintaining both measurement precision and processing speed.
3Reliability
If signal history is captured and stored for anomaly detection, then rare anomalies can be detected, but acquisition memory and processing resources are consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies local quality by storing complete signal history data in the acquisition memory with high fidelity, while the anomaly detector selectively analyzes specific portions of this history based on anomaly detection algorithms. The trigger system then focuses resources on generating alerts only for actual anomalies detected, optimizing resource usage while maintaining reliable rare anomaly detection.
Data Source
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Figure 3a~3b
AI summary
The test and measurement instrument includes an input terminal (52) configured to receive a signal (50). An acquisition engine (54) is coupled to the input terminal, the acquisition engine being configured to digitize the signal and store the digitized signal as a signal history in an acquisition memory (56) based on initial trigger settings. An anomaly detector ((44) is coupled to the acquisition memory, the anomaly detector being configured to detect an anomaly in the signal history. An analysis engine (46) is coupled to the anomaly detector, the analysis engine being configured to analyze the anomaly detected in the signal history and generate modified trigger settings for detecting the anomaly. Trigger circuitry (48) is coupled to the analysis engine, the trigger circuitry being configured to trigger based on the modified trigger settings (55).