IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 1998
Flash-type analog-to-digital converters (ADC's) presenting a nonlinear behavior, i.e., having non... more Flash-type analog-to-digital converters (ADC's) presenting a nonlinear behavior, i.e., having nonequally spaced threshold levels, may introduce harmonic distortion that can be reduced by employing large-amplitude dither-based conversion techniques. However, large-scale dithering is difficult to implement and, in addition, severely reduces the ADC input dynamic range. In this paper, a new ADC architecture is presented based on ordinary flash conversion and dynamic element matching, that strongly reduces nonlinear distortion. It eliminates the need for large-scale dither signals by randomizing the resistor positions in the resistor string used to generate the voltage references. Some properties of this architecture are analyzed and simulation results that validate the theoretical assumptions are presented.
IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 2003
This paper describes in detail a Java-based, clientserver architecture specifically designed to a... more This paper describes in detail a Java-based, clientserver architecture specifically designed to allow a flexible management of remote instruments. The main attributes of the proposed solution are portability and extensibility. The former feature is assured by the employment of the TCP/IP protocol suite and by the Java language properties. The latter is due to the high level of abstraction of the system implementation. This approach addresses a wide range of possible applications with high code reusability. In fact, the proposed architecture permits to drive many kinds of different devices and can be easily upgraded simply by adding a limited amount of code on the server computer whenever a new instrument is connected to the system. Index Terms-Client-server architecture, distributed measurement system (DMS), Java native interface, remote calibration.
IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 2004
This paper deals with two different techniques for the establishment of the optimal calibration i... more This paper deals with two different techniques for the establishment of the optimal calibration intervals of Cesium atomic clocks. In particular, the intervals obtained using a mathematical model derived from a metrological analysis are compared with those calculated with an iterative technique referred to as Simple Response Method (SRM). The remarkable consistency between the results achieved with these different calibration strategies not only provides an experimental cross-validation of both techniques, but it also allows the definition of two interchangeable criteria to ensure the metrological confirmation of any atomic clock of this type.
IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 2003
In the context of quality assurance strategies, statistical process control techniques and confor... more In the context of quality assurance strategies, statistical process control techniques and conformance testing are necessary to perform a correct quality auditing of process outcomes. However, data collection is based on measurements and every measurement is intrinsically affected by uncertainty. Even if adopted instruments are in a condition of metrological confirmation, random and systematic measurement errors can not be completely eliminated. Moreover, the consequence of wrong measurement-based decisions can seriously decrease company profits because of larger repairing and shipping costs, as well as for the loss of reputation due to customers' dissatisfaction. This paper deals with a theoretical analysis aimed at estimating the growth in decisional risks due to both random and systematic errors. Also, it provides some useful guidelines about how to choose the Test Uncertainty Ratio (TUR) of industry-rated measurement instruments in order to bound the risk of making wrong decisions below a preset maximum value.
IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 2006
Spectral leakage is a well-known phenomenon induced by the windowing process and usually revealed... more Spectral leakage is a well-known phenomenon induced by the windowing process and usually revealed in the frequency domain. Scientific literature has deeply investigated the spectral leakage of narrow-band components. However, the problem of windowing a wide-band colored noise has not yet been fully characterized. In this paper, the effect of the windowing process on the estimate of the in-band ∆Σ-shaped quantizationnoise power spectral density is investigated. The reported analysis holds for any modulator order and for any kind of real and symmetric window and proves the necessity of the windowing process in order to reduce the in-band noise power estimation bias. Moreover, an a priori criterion for designing the optimal window that reduces the shaped-noise spectral leakage and for choosing the minimum number of acquired samples to be employed is derived.
The authors analyze the validity of the uniform model for the marginal probability density functi... more The authors analyze the validity of the uniform model for the marginal probability density function (PDF) of granular quantization error (QE) in a uniform quantizer, subjected to random input signals. Two theorems are proved, which show that the knowledge of the average of such error as a function of input signal average, suffices for the determination of the quantization error PDF (QEPDF). This result is employed to derive simple expressions for the QEPDF in the case of random inputs with uniform, sinusoidal, or Gaussian distributions
Coherent sampling is a well known scheme for guaranteeing uniform distribution of sinewave phases... more Coherent sampling is a well known scheme for guaranteeing uniform distribution of sinewave phases. While such condition can be profitably exploited for testing Analog to Digital Converters (ADC) or Digital to Analog Converters (DAC), inaccuracies and non-idealities in both the signal generator and the sampling hardware make such condition rarely achievable. In this paper, the effect of deviations from the coherent sampling condition is analyzed, along with some effects on the related testing procedures.
IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 1998
Flash-type analog-to-digital converters (ADC's) presenting a nonlinear behavior, i.e., having non... more Flash-type analog-to-digital converters (ADC's) presenting a nonlinear behavior, i.e., having nonequally spaced threshold levels, may introduce harmonic distortion that can be reduced by employing large-amplitude dither-based conversion techniques. However, large-scale dithering is difficult to implement and, in addition, severely reduces the ADC input dynamic range. In this paper, a new ADC architecture is presented based on ordinary flash conversion and dynamic element matching, that strongly reduces nonlinear distortion. It eliminates the need for large-scale dither signals by randomizing the resistor positions in the resistor string used to generate the voltage references. Some properties of this architecture are analyzed and simulation results that validate the theoretical assumptions are presented.
IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 2003
This paper describes in detail a Java-based, clientserver architecture specifically designed to a... more This paper describes in detail a Java-based, clientserver architecture specifically designed to allow a flexible management of remote instruments. The main attributes of the proposed solution are portability and extensibility. The former feature is assured by the employment of the TCP/IP protocol suite and by the Java language properties. The latter is due to the high level of abstraction of the system implementation. This approach addresses a wide range of possible applications with high code reusability. In fact, the proposed architecture permits to drive many kinds of different devices and can be easily upgraded simply by adding a limited amount of code on the server computer whenever a new instrument is connected to the system. Index Terms-Client-server architecture, distributed measurement system (DMS), Java native interface, remote calibration.
IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 2004
This paper deals with two different techniques for the establishment of the optimal calibration i... more This paper deals with two different techniques for the establishment of the optimal calibration intervals of Cesium atomic clocks. In particular, the intervals obtained using a mathematical model derived from a metrological analysis are compared with those calculated with an iterative technique referred to as Simple Response Method (SRM). The remarkable consistency between the results achieved with these different calibration strategies not only provides an experimental cross-validation of both techniques, but it also allows the definition of two interchangeable criteria to ensure the metrological confirmation of any atomic clock of this type.
IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 2003
In the context of quality assurance strategies, statistical process control techniques and confor... more In the context of quality assurance strategies, statistical process control techniques and conformance testing are necessary to perform a correct quality auditing of process outcomes. However, data collection is based on measurements and every measurement is intrinsically affected by uncertainty. Even if adopted instruments are in a condition of metrological confirmation, random and systematic measurement errors can not be completely eliminated. Moreover, the consequence of wrong measurement-based decisions can seriously decrease company profits because of larger repairing and shipping costs, as well as for the loss of reputation due to customers' dissatisfaction. This paper deals with a theoretical analysis aimed at estimating the growth in decisional risks due to both random and systematic errors. Also, it provides some useful guidelines about how to choose the Test Uncertainty Ratio (TUR) of industry-rated measurement instruments in order to bound the risk of making wrong decisions below a preset maximum value.
IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 2006
Spectral leakage is a well-known phenomenon induced by the windowing process and usually revealed... more Spectral leakage is a well-known phenomenon induced by the windowing process and usually revealed in the frequency domain. Scientific literature has deeply investigated the spectral leakage of narrow-band components. However, the problem of windowing a wide-band colored noise has not yet been fully characterized. In this paper, the effect of the windowing process on the estimate of the in-band ∆Σ-shaped quantizationnoise power spectral density is investigated. The reported analysis holds for any modulator order and for any kind of real and symmetric window and proves the necessity of the windowing process in order to reduce the in-band noise power estimation bias. Moreover, an a priori criterion for designing the optimal window that reduces the shaped-noise spectral leakage and for choosing the minimum number of acquired samples to be employed is derived.
The authors analyze the validity of the uniform model for the marginal probability density functi... more The authors analyze the validity of the uniform model for the marginal probability density function (PDF) of granular quantization error (QE) in a uniform quantizer, subjected to random input signals. Two theorems are proved, which show that the knowledge of the average of such error as a function of input signal average, suffices for the determination of the quantization error PDF (QEPDF). This result is employed to derive simple expressions for the QEPDF in the case of random inputs with uniform, sinusoidal, or Gaussian distributions
Coherent sampling is a well known scheme for guaranteeing uniform distribution of sinewave phases... more Coherent sampling is a well known scheme for guaranteeing uniform distribution of sinewave phases. While such condition can be profitably exploited for testing Analog to Digital Converters (ADC) or Digital to Analog Converters (DAC), inaccuracies and non-idealities in both the signal generator and the sampling hardware make such condition rarely achievable. In this paper, the effect of deviations from the coherent sampling condition is analyzed, along with some effects on the related testing procedures.
Uploads
Papers by P. Carbone