Abstract
This paper presents a novel approach for accurately testing triangular waveform generators by leveraging the Ramp Vernier Test methodology commonly used for Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs). The proposed procedure enables efficient measurement of the nonlinearity of a triangular waveform using a low-cost data acquisition board. The key idea is to utilize the waveform generator under test to produce the stimulus signal for the data acquisition system’s testing. By analyzing the results of this test, the nonlinearity of the acquisition system can be determined and subsequently corrected. This approach effectively eliminates the influence of the acquisition system’s nonlinearity on the estimation of the nonlinearity of the waveform generator, ensuring accurate and reliable measurements.
Funding source: Instituto de Telecomunicações
Award Identifier / Grant number: UIDB/50008/2020
About the author
Francisco André Corrêa Alegria was born in Lisbon, Portugal, on July 2, 1972. He received the Diploma, M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and computers from the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Technical University of Lisbon, in 1995, 1997, and 2002, respectively. Since 1994, he has been a member of the instrumentation and measurement research line at the Instituto de Telecomunicações, Technical University of Lisbon. Since 1997, he has been a member of the teaching and research staff of IST where he is now Associate Professor with Habilitation. His current research interests include analog‐to‐digital-converter characterization techniques, automatic measurement systems, and computer vision.
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Author contributions: The author has accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.
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Research funding: This work was supported in part by the Portuguese national research project entitled “New error correction techniques for digital measurement instruments”, reference POCTI/ESE/46995/2002, and the project “Influence of Phase Noise and Jitter in the testing of telecommunication ADCs”, reference IT/LA/295/2005 whose support the author gratefully acknowledges.
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Conflict of interest statement: The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding this article.
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