A 1.5 MHz, Digital, Plasma-Data Acquisition and Processing System Using Multi-Time-Delay Sampling

A "multi-time-delay sampling" technique is described in which the effective sampling rate is increased while the sampling rate of the digitizer is held fixed. The technique has been utilized to extend the analysis bandwidth of an analog-digital, plasma data acquisition and processing system to 1.5 MHz. Such an enhancement in band-width capability is extremely valuable in analyzing phenomena associated with turbulent plasmas. Results are presented using known waveforms and actual plasma data in order to demonstrate the extended bandwidth capability provided by this technique.