Math Waveforms 4
Agilent InfiniiVision 3000 X-Series Oscilloscopes User's Guide 87
 
The following figure illustrates aliasing. This is the spectrum of a 990 Hz 
square wave, which has many harmonics. The sample rate is set to 
100 kSa/s, and the oscilloscope displays the spectrum. The displayed 
waveform shows the components of the input signal above the Nyquist 
frequency to be mirrored (aliased) on the display and reflected off the 
right edge.
Because the frequency span goes from ≈ 0 to the Nyquist frequency, the 
best way to prevent aliasing is to make sure that the frequency span is 
greater than the frequencies of significant energy present in the input 
signal.
FFT Spectral Leakage
The FFT operation assumes that the time record repeats. Unless there is 
an integral number of cycles of the sampled waveform in the record, a 
discontinuity is created at the end of the record. This is referred to as 
leakage. In order to minimize spectral leakage, windows that approach 
zero smoothly at the beginning and end of the signal are employed as 
filters to the FFT. The FFT Menu provides four windows: Hanning, Flat 
Figure 9 Aliasing