Chiara Maria De Dominicis, Luca De Vito, Paolo Ferrari, Alessandra Flammini, Sergio Rapuano
The paper presents the experimental characterization of the transmission path of a Software Defined Radio (SDR) platform. The characterization has been conducted by determining the standard parameters for the digital-toanalog converter testing in the frequency domain. In particular, a test method using sinewave input signals and a spectrum analyzer has been used. Experimental results have been conducted by using two different signal generation configurations offered by the SDR platform. In the former, the signal generation is realized by software in the computer connected to the SDR; in the...
Antonio Cataliotti, Valentina Cosentino, Dario Di Cara, Alessandro Lipari, Salvatore Nuccio, Ciro Spataro
The paper deals with the metrological characterization of a digital wattmeter developed by using a personal computer, a shunt, two commercial data acquisition boards and commercial software. The uncertainty of the active power measurements is assessed individually characterizing the voltage channel, the current channel and the phase displacement measurement between the two channels. In particular, the uncertainty on the voltage and current rms measurements is evaluated by using an already proposed approach based on the Monte Carlo method and on the usage of five parameters, while the...
E. Balestrieri, M. Catelani, L. Ciani, S. Rapuano, A. Zanobini
The paper proposes a novel approach to evaluate the measurement uncertainty of time domain dynamic parameters in Digital to Analog Converters (DACs). In particular, DAC rise time and fall time are taken into account and analyzed experimentally by means of dedicated measurement stations. The uncertainty of such measures is evaluated using the bootstrap method in order to define confidence intervals from short acquisition records without needing hypotheses about the measurand distribution. The final aim of this work is to give a contribution, in terms of uncertainty assessment, for the draft...
Anna Szlachta, Robert Hanus, Adam Kowalczyk
The paper presents a virtual instrument (VI) which allows to carry out the simulation and experimental studies of the various statistical methods of random signal time delay measurement including the methods developed by the authors which employ the conditional averaging of signals. The VI includes generators and oscilloscope and also a PC with the DAQ card and the software developed in the LabVIEW environment. The instrument allows to model and generate the stochastic signals with definite statistical parameters, to acquire signals from external sources, and to perform the time delay...
R. Lojacono, A. Lordi, A. Mencattini, M. Salmeri
The paper presents a subranging version of an already presented architecture based on a electrical transfer of the well known technique used to improve the accuracy of length measurements, namely the “nonio”. The particular feature of this last architecture is that greatly reduces the requested voltage reference levels that are necessary for the whole conversion. This in turn reduces the number of the requested resistors which, in an integrated realization, must have a great area to reduce the dispersion of the resistor values due to the alignment errors of the masks. Unfortunately this...
E. Balestrieri, M. Catelani, L. Ciani, S. Rapuano, A. Zanobini
The paper proposes a new method for Word Error Rate (WER) measurement for digitizing waveform recorders. In particular, a WER estimation procedure, based on Student’s t distribution, is provided to estimate the WER and its confidence interval, minimizing the acquisition record length. The proposed test procedure has been experimentally verified by means of WER measurements on actual digitizing waveform recorders, where the test results have been compared to those achieved by implementing the method described in the IEEE Std.1057. Two measurement set-ups have been adopted in order to prove...
Filippo Attivissimo, Nicola Giaquinto, Mirko Marracci, Bernardo Tellini
In this paper we analyze how static errors of Analog-to-Digital converters ADCs can influence the measurement of magnetic phenomena such as accommodation in soft hysteretic materials. The discussion is carried out through a series of simulation of ADC response curves, applied to simulated signals, data measured on a toroidal soft ferrite core. The final purpose of this work is to analyze the impact of INL on the measurement of the accommodation phenomenon of minor loops in soft magnetic materials.
David Stoppa, Fausto Borghetti, Justin Richardson, Richard Walker, Robert K. Henderson, Marek Gersbach, Edoardo Charbon
We report on the design and characterization of three different architectures, namely two Time-to- Digital Converters (TDCs) and a Time-to-Amplitude Converter (TAC) with embedded analog-to-digital conversion, implemented in a 130-nm CMOS imaging technology. The proposed circuit solutions are conceived for implementation at pixel-level, in image sensors exploiting Single-Photon Avalanche Diodes as photodetectors. The fabricated 32 × 32 TDCs/TACs arrays have a pitch of 50 µm in both directions while the average power consumption is between 28 mW and 300 mW depending on the architectural...
Steven J. Tilden, Solomon M. Max
The Draft IEEE Standard 1658-2011 entitled “Terminology and Test Methods for Digital-to-Analog Converters” (DAC’s) defines terminology and specifications and describes test methods for measuring the performance of DAC’s. The standard is written for manufacturers and users of DAC’s for use in both static and dynamic applications. The main purpose of this standard is to ensure that manufactures and users of DAC’s have a well-defined set of terms, specifications and test methods so they can understand, describe, and compare the performance of these D/A converters using a common language, with...
Marco Ricci, Luca Senni, Pietro Burrascano
A Virtual-Instrument for Air-Coupled Ultrasound Non Destructive Testing applications based on Psuedo- Noise Sequences is presented. The instrument is designed by means of the LabView software to manage and synchronise a digital input/output module and a virtual oscilloscope and to implement the digital processing required to fully exploit the characteristics of the coded excitation. The Signal to Noise Ratio enhancement assured by this technique with respect both Additive White Gaussian Noise and Quantization Noise is theoretically analysed and experimental verified.