Minimal reconfiguration spectrum stitching with overlapped bands

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9557358-B2
Application number	US-201113331017-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 20, 2011
Priority date	Apr 20, 2011
Publication date	Jan 31, 2017
Grant date	Jan 31, 2017

Abstract

Embodiments of this invention include a test and measurement instrument and associated methods for acquiring and stitching wide overlapped non-uniform frequency bands so that a user specified band can be efficiently displayed and analyzed. The test and measurement instrument includes a user interface to receive the user specified frequency span. Acquisition circuitry acquires one or more predefined frequency bands having non-uniform overlapping frequency ranges. A frequency band processing section can decimate the acquired frequency bands, mask the acquired frequency bands, and stitch the masked frequency bands together. A display section displays the user specified frequency span using the stitched frequency bands. Due to the overlap configuration of the wide non-uniform bands, any user specified span between 50 kHz and 6 GHz, or thereabout, can be covered by two bands.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A test and measurement instrument, comprising:
an RF input terminal;
an attenuator coupled to the RF input terminal and structured to receive one or more input signals under test;
a low band filtered path, a mid band filtered path, and a high band filtered path, each of the filtered paths capable of being coupled to the attenuator;
a switch coupled to the attenuator and structured to divert the one or more input signals to at least one of the low band filtered path, the mid band filtered path, and the high band filtered path, to produce a low frequency band, a mid frequency band, and a high frequency band, respectively; and
a digital down converter including a digital mixer and a down sampler configured to decimate the low frequency band, the mid frequency band, and the high frequency band, wherein the digital down converter is configured to operate based on a full frequency span of a final frequency spectrum;
wherein the low frequency band, the mid frequency band, and the high frequency band are of non-uniform overlapping frequency ranges.

2. The test and measurement instrument of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the low frequency band, the mid frequency band, and the high frequency band correspond to a first portion of an intermediate frequency span.

3. The test and measurement instrument of claim 2 , further comprising:
a transform section configured to receive the low frequency band and transform the intermediate frequency span including the first portion corresponding to the low frequency band; and
a mask section configured to mask a second portion of the intermediate frequency span so that the first portion of the intermediate frequency span corresponding to the low frequency band is configured to be valid and the second portion is configured to be discarded.

4. The test and measurement instrument of claim 2 , further comprising:
a transform section configured to receive the mid frequency band and transform the intermediate frequency span including the first portion corresponding to the mid frequency band; and
a mask section configured to mask a second portion of the intermediate frequency span and a third portion of the intermediate frequency span so that the first portion of the intermediate frequency span corresponding to the mid frequency band is configured to be valid and the second and third portions are configured to be discarded.

5. The test and measurement instrument of claim 2 , further comprising:
a transform section configured to receive the high frequency band and transform the intermediate frequency span including the first portion corresponding to the high frequency band; and
a mask section configured to mask a second portion of the intermediate frequency span so that the first portion of the intermediate frequency span corresponding to the high frequency band is configured to be valid and the second portion is configured to be discarded.

6. The test and measurement instrument of claim 2 ,
wherein the digital mixer is configured to mix a digital local oscillator signal with the low frequency band and the down sampler is configured to down sample the intermediate frequency span including the first portion corresponding to the low frequency band; and the test and measurement instrument further comprises:
a mask section configured to mask a second portion of the intermediate frequency span so that the first portion of the intermediate frequency span corresponding to the low frequency band is configured to be valid and the second portion is configured to be discarded.

7. The test and measurement instrument of claim 2 ,
wherein the digital mixer is configured to mix a digital local oscillator signal with the mid frequency band and the down sampler is configured to down sample the intermediate frequency span including the first portion corresponding to the mid frequency band; and the test and measurement instrument further comprises:
a mask section configured to mask a second portion of the intermediate frequency span and a third portion of the intermediate frequency span so that the first portion of the intermediate frequency span corresponding to the mid frequency band is configured to be valid and the second and third portions are configured to be discarded.

8. The test and measurement instrument of claim 2 ,
wherein the digital mixer is configured to mix a digital local oscillator signal with the high frequency band and the down sampler is configured to down sample the intermediate frequency span including the first portion corresponding to the high frequency band; and the test and measurement instrument further comprises:
a mask section configured to mask a second portion of the intermediate frequency span so that the first portion of the intermediate frequency span corresponding to the high frequency band is configured to be valid and the second portion is configured to be discarded.

9. The test and measurement instrument of claim 1 , further comprising:
a stitcher configured to stitch at least one of the low, mid, and high frequency bands with at least another one of the low, mid, and high frequency bands.

10. The test and measurement instrument of claim 1 , further comprising:
a user interface configured to receive a user specified frequency span;
acquisition circuitry configured to acquire at least two of the low, mid, and high frequency bands having non-uniform overlapping frequency ranges;
a frequency band processing section configured to decimate each of the acquired frequency bands, mask each of the acquired frequency bands, and stitch the masked frequency bands together; and
a display section configured to display the user specified frequency span using the stitched frequency bands.

11. The test and measurement instrument of claim 1 , wherein the low frequency band includes a frequency range from about 50 kHz to about 3.8 GHz, the mid frequency band includes a frequency range from about 2.75 GHz to about 4.5 GHz, and the high frequency band includes a frequency range from about 3.5 GHz to about 6 GHz.

12. A method for processing wide overlapped frequency bands, the method comprising:
acquiring a plurality of frequency bands having non-uniform overlapping frequency ranges;
decimating via a digital down converter including a digital mixer and a down sampler each of the plurality of frequency bands based on the full frequency span of a final frequency spectrum;
masking each of the plurality of frequency bands;
displaying a user specified frequency span using at least a portion of the stitched frequency bands,
wherein acquiring the plurality of frequency bands includes acquiring two or more of a low frequency band, a mid frequency band, and a high frequency band; and
determining an intermediate frequency span based on the user specified frequency span, wherein determining includes selecting and combining two or more of the low frequency band, the mid frequency band, and the high frequency band.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the stitched frequency bands include two or more of the low frequency band, the mid frequency band, and the high frequency band, and wherein displaying includes:
displaying the user specified frequency span using at least a portion of the low frequency band of the stitched frequency bands.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein displaying includes:
displaying the user specified frequency span using at least a portion of the mid frequency band and a portion of the high frequency band, of the stitched frequency bands.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein determining includes selecting the low frequency b

Assignees

• Ward Benjamin A
• Tektronix Inc

Inventors

• Ward Benjamin A

Classifications

• G06K15/00

  Arrangements for producing a permanent visual presentation of the output data {, e.g. computer output printers}(printing or plotting combined with another operation, e.g. with conveying, G06K17/00) · CPC title

• G06K17/00

  Methods or arrangements for effecting co-operative working between equipments covered by two or more of main groups G06K1/00 - G06K15/00, e.g. automatic card files incorporating conveying and reading operations · CPC title

• H04B17/00

  Monitoring; Testing (of line transmission systems H04B3/46; arrangements for monitoring or testing transmission systems employing electromagnetic waves other than radio waves H04B10/07) · CPC title

• G01R23/163 Primary

  adapted for measuring in circuits having distributed constants · CPC title