Design and Implementation of a Preprocessing Circuit for Bandpass Signals Acquisition

The processing capabilities that are included into the acquisition block of the real-time digital oscilloscopes largely contribute to determine the overall performance of the instrument. Their remarkable improvement has made it possible to enhance the performance in terms of increased measurement rate, automation, and reduced measurement uncertainty related to quantization and noise. This paper presents the implementation of a preprocessing circuit for a novel acquisition mode of bandpass signals, which is characterized by an increased vertical resolution. Although the theoretical foundations were recently presented with simulative results, here, the circuital implementation of such an acquisition mode is presented. The focus is on mid or low cost digital oscilloscopes that can improve their vertical resolution at a negligible additional cost. First, a preliminary field programmable gate array implementation is considered to evaluate the achievable performance both from a theoretical point of view and throughout experimental tests. Then, a custom application specific integrated circuit implementation, in 28-nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology is analyzed. Along with the parameter optimization, the work experimentally tests the acquisition mode and evaluates the effects of nonideal characteristics such as finite word length and nonideal filtering. The increase in the effective number of bit (ENoB) is up to 2.5 bit, whereas the ENoB degradation because of word length and nonideal filtering is quantified as ~ 1.1 and 0.5 bit. The design highlights that there is substantial margin for parallel implementation that is the base to candidate the proposed solution as a remarkable option for the next generation oscilloscopes.