Variable Resolution Oscilloscope ADC Deployment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Waveform digitizers, such as oscilloscopes, face challenges in achieving optimal resolution and sample rates while managing noise and bandwidth effectively, often resulting in wasteful resource allocation and suboptimal noise reduction due to the limitations of time-interleaving and waveform interpolation techniques.
Innovation Solution
A flexible waveform digitizer system that dynamically configures hardware filters and ADCs to optimize bandwidth, sample rate, and resolution, employing techniques like enhanced resolution filtering and bandwidth limiting to improve effective number of bits (ENOB), and automatically adjusts settings based on user specifications and noise characteristics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If time-interleaving is used to increase sample rate, then the sample rate improves, but power consumption and resource usage increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically switches between different ADC deployment configurations (time-interleaved, vertical-interleaved, averaged, filtered) based on real-time noise spectral characteristics and user specifications. This allows the oscilloscope to adaptively optimize the balance between sample rate and power consumption, using time-interleaving only when necessary and switching to more power-efficient modes when adequate performance can be achieved with fewer active ADCs.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the operational parameters of the ADC system by adjusting the number of active ADCs, their deployment configuration, and processing methods based on noise spectral analysis. This dynamic parameter adjustment enables the system to achieve desired sample rates with minimal power consumption by selecting optimal configurations rather than continuously operating all ADCs at full capacity.
2Speed
If waveform interpolation is used to increase sample rate, then the user sample rate improves, but the hardware sample rate and resource requirements remain constrained
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs noise spectral characterization and uses this feedback to automatically determine the optimal ADC deployment configuration. This feedback mechanism eliminates the need for manual configuration of interpolation and other processing parameters, reducing operational complexity while maintaining high user sample rates through automated optimization.
3Measurement precision
If enhanced resolution filtering is applied to improve ENOB, then the effective number of bits improves, but bandwidth is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically selects and switches between different filtering methods (enhanced resolution filtering, bandwidth limiting, averaging, time-interleaving) based on real-time noise spectral characteristics and user specifications. This allows the system to optimize the ENOB-bandwidth trade-off by applying filtering only when and where it is most effective, rather than continuously applying aggressive filtering that would reduce bandwidth.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes processing parameters such as filter type, filter strength, and processing method based on noise spectral analysis results. This dynamic parameter adjustment enables the system to maximize ENOB improvement while minimizing bandwidth reduction by selecting the most appropriate processing technique for each specific measurement condition.
4Measurement precision
If multiple ADCs are deployed to improve resolution and sample rate, then measurement capability improves, but resource allocation becomes inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically configures the number and arrangement of active ADCs based on noise spectral characteristics and user specifications. This dynamic deployment strategy allows the system to use only the necessary number of ADCs for each measurement condition, avoiding the resource waste of having all ADCs continuously active while maintaining the capability to achieve high resolution and sample rates when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the ADC resources into different deployment configurations (time-interleaved groups, vertical-interleaved groups, averaged streams, filtered streams) that can be independently selected and combined. This segmentation allows flexible resource allocation where only the necessary segments are activated for each measurement, optimizing the balance between measurement capability and resource utilization.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and apparatus for providing variable analog to digital converter (ADC) resolution is described.