Signal averaging technology provides a fast and efficient means for users to process data on-board the digitiser, and transfer only the data that is of interest to the PC for further analysis
Gage Applied Technologies has introduced new optional on-board signal averaging capabilities in its range of high-resolution digitiser cards, allowing users to detect very small signals in noisy environments.
The signal averaging capability takes advantage of the on-board FPGA technology on some GaGe 12- and 14-bit digitisers, and allows the averaging to take place rapidly with no CPU loading on the host PC.
The process consists of making multiple acquisitions of a repetitive waveform and averaging all acquisitions together.
Any random noise is subsequently averaged to near zero, while the amplitude of the underlying repetitive signal remains unchanged.
Since the signal averaging is performed on-board using the intelligent processing of the FPGA, the amount of data that needs to be transferred via the PCI bus to the PC is reduced by a factor that may be as high as 1000.
Waveforms can be signal-averaged at a rate of greater than 100,000 waveforms per second for a data processing rate of 800Mbit/s.
Signal averaging technology provides a fast and efficient means for users to process data on-board the digitiser, and transfer only the data that is of interest to the PC for further analysis.
In particular, it is a powerful method of improving the fidelity of noisy repetitive signals.
Using signal averaging, small signals can be extracted from a background of high amplitude noise, which may even be larger than the actual signal itself.
Applications for Gage's new signal averaging technology include ultrasonic, radar or lidar testing; optical fibre testing; stimulus/response systems; and network analysis.
Gage Applied Technologies is a designer and manufacturer of high-performance PC-based digitiser and oscilloscope cards.
In the UK, Gage products are available exclusively from TTi.
