Better timing

A new method for correcting common timing errors in high-speed oscilloscopes has been developed by researchers in the USA.

A new method for correcting common timing errors in high-speed oscilloscopes has been developed by researchers at the

(NIST).

The method is said to improve the accuracy and clarity of measurements performed in the development and troubleshooting of components for wireless and optical communications, military radar and other technologies.

Oscilloscopes display graphical representations of electrical and optical signals as waves, showing how the signals change over time. These instruments often have inaccurate internal clocks that distort output patterns, and they also can exhibit random timing errors called jitter. These errors may lead, for example, to false detection of failure in a communications module that is actually working, or to increased electronic "noise" interference with measurements of microwave signals from radar.

The NIST method, based on an approach developed in laboratory experiments and implemented in freely available software, constructs an alternative time base.

The software analyses an oscilloscope's measurements of both a signal of interest and two reference waves that are offset from each other. The reference waves are generated by an external device and are synchronised in time with the signal being measured.

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