49
Using Spectral Analysis
—operate the instrument like a spectrum analyzer.
When you are displaying an FFT (spectral) math waveform, you can use either of these two ways
to operate the instrument:
 Use the conventional time-domain instrument controls, such as vertical and horizontal
position and scale.
 Use the spectrum analyzer controls, such as center frequency, span, resolution bandwidth, and
reference level.
When you use the spectrum analyzer control set, the instrument automatically sets its time domain
parameters, including record length and sample rate, as necessary to give you the view of the
spectral waveform that you want to see. And you can switch back to using the conventional time-
domain controls at any time.
Spectral waveforms can be simple magnitude or phase waveforms calculated from the data
acquired on a single channel. Or you can combine spectral operations with other math operations
to do complex analysis of your signals.
Characterizing a Signal
—deriving statistical information from your signals
Signal characterization begins with taking measurements. To gain even more insight into your
measurements, you can add measurement statistics to calculate the average measurement value,
the standard deviation, and the maximum range of the measurement value.
Another way to characterize a signal is to compile a histogram from the acquired waveform. You
can set up either a vertical histogram to analyze amplitude values or a horizontal histogram to
analyze timing. As an example, the vertical histogram is useful for characterizing noise and the
horizontal histogram is useful for characterizing jitter.
While the histogram is being compiled from the acquired waveform, you can take continuous
measurements on the histogram data to determine its mean value and other useful statistics.
Mask and Limit Testing
—applying masks and templates to waveforms for compliance testing
Mask testing is used with communication signals. You can create your own user mask or (with
Option SM) use industry standard masks for compliance testing.
Limit testing allows you to compare the performance of products coming off a manufacturing line
with a known good reference product or template.
You can create any number of User masks and templates for future use, however, you can only use
one mask at a time and only on one channel at a time. Limit testing can be done on all four
channels at the same time.
To Next Page
Loading...
Need help?
General
