High bandwidth oscilloscope
AssigneeLeCroy Corporation
InventorsPeter Pupalaikis, David Graef
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for improving bandwidth of an oscilloscope involves, in preferred embodiments, the use of frequency up-conversion and down-conversion techniques. In an illustrative embodiment the technique involves separating an input signal into a high frequency content and a low frequency content, down-converting the high frequency content in the analog domain so that it may be processed by the oscilloscope's analog front end, digitizing the low frequency content and the down-converted high frequency content, and forming a digital representation of the received analog signal from the digitized low frequency content and high frequency content.
Claims49
A method for digitizing an analog signal, comprising the steps of:
- separating the analog signal spanning a frequency range into a first signal occupying a first frequency band and a second signal occupying a second frequency band, at least a substantial portion of said second frequency band being higher than the first frequency band;
- translating the second signal to a lower frequency band;
- digitizing the translated second signal with digitizing elements having a frequency range less than the analog signal frequency range;
- digitizing the first signal;
- forming a digital representation of the analog signal from the digitized first signal and the digitized translated second signal, wherein the digital representation is a substantially accurate representation of the analog input signal across substantially the entire frequency range of the analog input signal;
- and
- storing the digital representation in a computer readable medium.
A system for acquiring an analog signal, comprising:
- an analog input to receive an analog input signal spanning a frequency range, the frequency range including a first frequency band and a second frequency band, at least a portion of said second frequency band being higher than said first frequency band;
- a first signal path to transport a first signal occupying the first frequency band;
- a second signal path to transport a second signal occupying the second frequency band;
- a frequency translator to translate the second signal to a lower frequency band;
- a digitizing system to digitize the first signal and second signal, the digitizing system having a frequency range less than the analog input signal frequency range;
- a second frequency translator for substantially restoring the digitized second signal to the second frequency band;
- and
- a digital combiner to join the first signal and the second signal and form a digital representation of the analog input signal, the digital representation substantially spanning the frequency range of the analog input signal.
(canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.