Dynamic testing and diagnostics of digitizing signal analyzers

A dynamic testing method for evaluating the effective bit number of digitizing signal analyzers is presented. This technique is valid when, owing to particular working conditions, only a limited number of digitizing signal analyzer sampling points can be collected. In such a case existing test methodologies can present problems. The proposed method is based on a regression algorithm and, by employing one and a half periods of the sinewave test signal, requires very short computation time. After a summary of the existing test methodologies, the performance and limits of the method proposed are analyzed. To demonstrate the applicability of the method, preliminary simulation results for several devices and data relative to one particular digitizer are reported