Calibration method of spectrum analyzer
Technical Field
The invention relates to the technical field of spectrum analyzers, in particular to a calibration method of a spectrum analyzer.
Background
A spectrum analyzer is a receiver for performing spectrum analysis on a signal to be measured, and can measure relevant parameters such as frequency, amplitude, distortion and the like of an unknown signal, and generally has a wide frequency and amplitude measurement range. The method is mainly applied to the fields of base station maintenance, electronic product research and development, production and the like. The spectrum analyzer may also be referred to as a frequency domain oscilloscope, a tracking oscilloscope, an analysis oscilloscope, a harmonic analyzer, a frequency characteristic analyzer, a fourier analyzer, or the like. The main technical indexes of the spectrum analyzer include frequency range, resolution, frequency sweep speed, sensitivity, display mode, false response, amplitude precision and the like.
Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the operation of a conventional spectrum analyzer. The input radio frequency signal is subjected to frequency conversion for multiple times to change a signal with higher frequency into a low-frequency signal which can be processed by the digital intermediate frequency module. Since the mixing is performed a plurality of times, it is necessary to provide a plurality of local oscillation signals. In this conversion process, unwanted side frequencies, nonlinear spurs, and the like are generated due to the characteristics of the mixer itself, and it is necessary to filter out unwanted signals with a filter in order to ensure the purity of the signal spectrum.
As shown in fig. 2, the improved spectrum analyzer works in a schematic diagram. The spectrum analyzer 100 adopts a superheterodyne structure, and performs frequency conversion on an input signal introduced through a radio frequency front end module 101 and an intermediate frequency channel module 102 for multiple times to convert the input signal into an intermediate frequency signal, and then sends the intermediate frequency signal to a display module 103 including an ADC sampling unit, a digital intermediate frequency filter unit, a detector unit, a control unit and a display unit to perform output and display. In the rf front-end module 101, a signal to be tested enters from an input port, and the front-end link 104 or the power load 2 is gated by the single-pole double-throw switch 1, and the single-pole double-throw switch 1 may be subjected to a large power, so that a high-power single-pole double-throw switch or a relay is often used. The single-pole double-throw switch 4 is used to gate the input of the signal under test into the front-end chain 104 or the calibration signal output unit 3 into the front-end chain 104 for self-calibration, the calibration signal output unit 3 being typically generated by internal circuitry of the spectrum analyzer 100. The single-pole double-throw switch 5 and the single-pole double-throw switch 7 are matched together to gate whether the fixed attenuator 6 is connected into the front-end link 104 or not. The fixed attenuator 6 can bear larger input power, and when the spectrum analyzer 100 is used for measuring a signal with larger power, in order to ensure that the mixer 13 works in a linear region, the input signal needs to be attenuated firstly; the fixed attenuator 6 typically has a high compression point to ensure that the signal under test arriving at the mixer 13 is not compressed. The step attenuator 8 is an attenuator with adjustable attenuation amount and has a wide attenuation range, and can continuously attenuate the input measured signal to the optimal mixing level of the mixer 13. The single-pole double-throw switch 9 and the single-pole double-throw switch 11 are cooperatively used for gating the preamplifier 10, the preamplifier 10 is used for measuring small signals, and when the amplitude of the measured signal is smaller and is close to the low noise of the spectrum analyzer 100, the preamplifier 10 is turned on, the noise coefficient of the front-end link 104 is reduced, namely the noise is reduced, and therefore the small signals can be accurately measured. The filter 12 is a low-pass filter and functions to suppress the image frequency of the mixer 13.
The calibration method of the scheme is that the spectrum analyzer 100 measures the calibration signal of the point frequency, the difference value is made between the amplitude of the calibration signal obtained by the measurement and the actual amplitude of the calibration signal, the control unit in the display module 203 stores the difference value, and the difference value is automatically added to the measurement result of the spectrum analyzer 100, so as to reduce the error of the measurement result.
The signal post-processed by the digital intermediate frequency filtering unit in the display module 103 has a certain bandwidth, which is equal to the currently set RBW (resolution filter bandwidth), but the calibration method of the existing scheme cannot calibrate the frequency response introduced by the intermediate frequency channel module circuit in the RBW bandwidth, so the flatness of the frequency response introduced by the intermediate frequency channel module circuit affects the accuracy (within 3dB bandwidth) of the amplitude of the test signal, and the accuracy of the amplitude test of the device is reduced.
The bandwidth of the analog if filter in the if channel block of the spectrum analyzer 100 must be greater than the maximum possible RBW of the spectrum analyzer, e.g., 1 MHz. The bandwidth of the signal after ADC sampling and digital intermediate frequency filtering in the display module 103 is equal to the currently set RBW bandwidth. Because the signal processed by the digital intermediate frequency is not an ideal single-frequency point signal, but a signal with a bandwidth of RBW, the calibration of the existing scheme only carries out single-point calibration, and does not consider the frequency response flatness of the intermediate frequency channel circuit in the signal bandwidth, the accuracy of the measured signal peak value is higher, but the error between the amplitude in the 3dB bandwidth and the actual value may be larger, and the calibration cannot be carried out.
The real-time spectrum analyzer samples and analyzes signals in a bandwidth at the same time, the analysis bandwidth is usually wide, the influence of the flatness of the frequency response of an intermediate frequency channel in the analysis bandwidth on the accuracy of the test cannot be ignored, and if the calibration method of the existing scheme is applied, the calibration signal needs to be a broadband signal with the bandwidth equal to the analysis bandwidth. In order to complete calibration, a broadband signal generating circuit is required to be added as a calibration signal source, so that the circuit cost is increased, high precision of the amplitude of a broadband calibration signal in a full working temperature range is ensured, and the realization difficulty is high.
Disclosure of Invention
In order to solve the problems in the prior art, the invention provides a calibration method of a spectrum analyzer, which can calibrate the in-band frequency response of an intermediate frequency channel circuit without adding an additional circuit on the basis of the circuit of the prior scheme, and reduce the influence of the in-band frequency response of the intermediate frequency channel circuit on amplitude measurement.
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a calibration method for a spectrum analyzer, comprising:
determining a frequency point to be calibrated of the intermediate frequency channel circuit according to the amplitude precision requirement;
determining the frequency sweep frequency of the first local oscillation signal corresponding to each calibration frequency point and the frequency sweep frequency of the numerical control oscillator by using the frequency corresponding to each calibration frequency point;
setting the working frequency of the first local oscillator and the working frequency of the numerical control oscillator according to the frequency sweeping frequency of the first local oscillator signal corresponding to each calibration frequency point and the frequency sweeping frequency of the numerical control oscillator of the spectrum analyzer during each calibration;
the calibration signal corresponding to each calibration frequency point is input to the numerical control oscillator after sequentially passing through a radio frequency front end, an intermediate frequency channel circuit and sampling, and each calibration signal is converted into a zero intermediate frequency signal through frequency mixing processing of the numerical control oscillator;
the spectrum analyzer obtains the measurement amplitude of the corresponding calibration signal by using the zero intermediate frequency signal corresponding to each calibration signal;
comparing the measured amplitude of each calibration signal with the actual amplitude to obtain a difference value of each calibration signal, wherein the difference value is the frequency response of the intermediate frequency channel circuit at a corresponding frequency point;
and the calibration of the spectrum analyzer is realized by utilizing the frequency response of the intermediate frequency channel circuit at the corresponding frequency point.
Preferably, the frequency sweep frequency of the digitally controlled oscillator is equal to the frequency of the intermediate frequency signal output by the intermediate frequency channel circuit.
The technical scheme has the following beneficial effects: the technical scheme is simple and easy to realize, does not additionally increase the circuit cost, and is used for calibrating the frequency response in the analysis bandwidth of the intermediate frequency channel circuit so as to reduce the influence of the frequency response on the amplitude measurement accuracy.
Drawings
In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described below, it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and for those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained according to the drawings without creative efforts.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the operation of a conventional spectrum analyzer;
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the operation of the improved spectrum analyzer;
FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a calibration method of a spectrum analyzer according to the present invention;
fig. 4 is a circuit diagram of the spectrum analyzer requiring calibration according to this embodiment.
Detailed Description
The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.
The working principle of the technical scheme is as follows: in the prior art, a method of generally adopting a broadband signal as a calibration signal needs to add a broadband signal generating circuit, so that the circuit cost is increased, the occupied area of a PCB (printed circuit board) is correspondingly increased, and the realization difficulty of the broadband signal generating circuit with accurate amplitude is also higher. Based on this, in order to calibrate the broadband frequency response of the intermediate frequency channel, the technical scheme does not add a broadband calibration signal generation circuit, when calibration is performed, the calibration signal is unchanged, the first local oscillator frequency and the digital oscillator frequency change synchronously, the amplitude of the calibration signal which is subjected to sampling processing after being converted to any position in the intermediate frequency channel band can be obtained through testing, and the difference obtained by comparing the amplitude with the actual amplitude value of the calibration signal is stored and used as calibration data of the intermediate frequency channel frequency response when the intermediate frequency is output. When the spectrum analyzer is used for measurement, the corresponding difference value is automatically added. The calibration of the spectrum analyzer is realized, and no extra circuit is required to be added for matching the calibration.
Based on the above working principle, the present invention provides a calibration method for a spectrum analyzer, as shown in fig. 3. The method comprises the following steps:
step 301) determining a frequency point to be calibrated of the intermediate frequency channel circuit;
step 302): determining the frequency sweep frequency of the first local oscillation signal corresponding to each calibration frequency point and the frequency sweep frequency of the numerical control oscillator by using the frequency corresponding to each calibration frequency point; and the frequency sweep frequency of the numerical control oscillator is equal to the frequency of the intermediate frequency signal output by the intermediate frequency channel circuit.
Step 303): setting the working frequency of the first local oscillator and the working frequency of the numerical control oscillator according to the frequency sweeping frequency of the first local oscillator signal corresponding to each calibration frequency point and the frequency sweeping frequency of the numerical control oscillator of the spectrum analyzer during each calibration;
step 304): the calibration signal corresponding to each calibration frequency point is input to the numerical control oscillator after sequentially passing through a radio frequency front end, an intermediate frequency channel circuit and sampling, and each calibration signal is converted into a zero intermediate frequency signal through frequency mixing processing of the numerical control oscillator;
step 305): the spectrum analyzer obtains the measurement amplitude of the corresponding calibration signal by using the zero intermediate frequency signal corresponding to each calibration signal;
step 306): comparing the measured amplitude of each calibration signal with the actual amplitude to obtain a difference value of each calibration signal, wherein the difference value is the frequency response of the intermediate frequency channel circuit at a corresponding frequency point;
step 307): and the calibration of the spectrum analyzer is realized by utilizing the frequency response of the intermediate frequency channel circuit at the corresponding frequency point.
Fig. 4 is a circuit diagram of the spectrum analyzer requiring calibration according to this embodiment. The circuit structure of the real-time spectrum analyzer is adopted, and the real-time analysis bandwidth of the equipment is 10 MHz.
The frequency range of the detected signal is 9kHz to 3.2GHz, the detected signal is input to the radio frequency front-end circuit from the input end of the equipment, and the radio frequency front-end circuit carries out corresponding amplitude adjustment and filtering on the input signal according to the set reference level so as to provide proper input amplitude for the first frequency mixer and filter image frequency components in the input signal; the signal output by the radio frequency front end module is mixed with a first local oscillation signal from 4GHz to 7.2GHz, and the first intermediate frequency signal passes through a first intermediate frequency amplifier and a first intermediate frequency filter to obtain a first intermediate frequency signal from 3995MHz to 4005 MHz.
The second mixer mixes the first intermediate frequency signal output by the first intermediate frequency filter with a second local oscillator, and the output signal is subjected to amplitude adjustment and filtering through a second intermediate frequency amplifier and a second intermediate frequency filter; and the third mixer mixes the second intermediate frequency signal output by the second intermediate frequency filter with a third local oscillator, and the output signal is subjected to amplitude adjustment and filtering through a third intermediate frequency amplifier and a third intermediate frequency filter to obtain a third intermediate frequency signal with the frequency range of 95MHz to 105 MHz.
And inputting the third intermediate frequency signal to a digital processing module for digital processing. The digital processing module mainly comprises an ADC sampling unit, digital down-conversion and digital processing, and the signal after the digital processing is output to a display screen for display. The ADC sampling unit is mainly used for digitizing the third intermediate frequency signal; the digital down-conversion is to mix the third intermediate frequency signal with the 100MHz signal output by the digital oscillator and convert the third intermediate frequency signal into a baseband signal; the digital processing module carries out a series of processing such as filtering and wave detection on the baseband signal. The digital down conversion, the digital controlled oscillator and the digital processing module are realized by devices such as FPGA and the like.
When the apparatus is set to the measurement mode, the frequencies are arranged as follows. Assuming that the input frequency is 45 to 55MHz, the current first local oscillation frequency is 4050MHz dot frequency, the first intermediate frequency signal obtained through the first frequency mixing, the first intermediate frequency amplifying and the filtering is 3995MHz to 4005MHz, the third intermediate frequency signal obtained through the second frequency mixing, the amplifying and the filtering of the later stage and the third frequency mixing, the amplifying and the filtering is 95MHz to 105MHz, and the signal is subjected to ADC sampling and then mixed with the 100MHz dot frequency signal output by the digital controlled oscillator to obtain a baseband signal for the later stage digital processing and display.
During calibration, the equipment provides a reference calibration signal as a 50MHz dot frequency, when equipment self-calibration is carried out, the calibration signal 50MHz passes through a radio frequency front end and is input to a first mixer, the current first local oscillator is set to be changed in a range from 4045MHz to 4055MHz, a third intermediate frequency signal from 95MHz to 105MHz is obtained after transmission of an intermediate frequency channel module, the frequency output by the numerical control oscillator is changed in a range from 95MHz to 105MHz, the frequency change output by the numerical control oscillator is matched with the frequency change of the first local oscillator, zero intermediate frequency signals are output after digital down-conversion, and then post-level digital processing is carried out.
The further detailed description is as follows:
step 1): a calibration signal 50MHz point frequency signal is input to a first mixer through a radio frequency front end, a current first local oscillator is set to be 4045MHz, a first intermediate frequency signal is 3995MHz, the calibration signal is subjected to second frequency mixing, amplification and filtering, third frequency mixing, amplification and filtering, the third intermediate frequency signal has the frequency of 95MHz and is mixed with a 95MHz signal output by a numerical control oscillator to obtain a zero intermediate frequency signal, the zero intermediate frequency signal is subjected to post-stage digital processing to obtain the amplitude of the 50MHz calibration signal measured by a spectrum analyzer, the amplitude is compared with the actual amplitude of the 50MHz calibration signal, and the obtained difference is the frequency response introduced by a corresponding intermediate frequency channel circuit when the output of an intermediate frequency channel module is 95 MHz;
step 2): changing the first local oscillation frequency and the frequency of the numerical control oscillator correspondingly, and repeating the step 1;
step 3): and (3) determining the frequency points of the intermediate frequency channel circuit to be calibrated according to the amplitude precision requirement, and repeating the step (2) for each calibrated frequency point. When the intermediate frequency channel outputs 102MHz according to the calibration requirement, that is, the first local oscillator signal is set to 4052MHz, and the frequency of the digitally controlled oscillator is set to 102 MHz.
Step 4): and storing the obtained difference values, namely the frequency response introduced by the intermediate frequency channel circuit when the intermediate frequency channel outputs 95MHz to 105 MHz. When in measurement, the difference value is automatically added to the measurement result, so that the influence of the frequency response of the intermediate frequency channel circuit on the accuracy of the measurement amplitude can be reduced, and the measurement precision is improved.
By the aid of the embodiment, the in-band frequency response of the intermediate frequency channel circuit can be calibrated without adding an additional circuit, and the influence of the in-band frequency response of the intermediate frequency channel circuit on amplitude measurement is reduced.
The above-mentioned embodiments are intended to illustrate the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention in further detail, and it should be understood that the above-mentioned embodiments are merely exemplary embodiments of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, and any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements and the like made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the scope of the present invention.