On 11/28/2010 08:38 AM, Vladutzzz wrote:
Vlad.
The basic flow for power measurement is:
source–>bandpass_filter->complex-to-mag-squared–>
single-pole-iir_filter–>calib_multiplier–>calib_offset–>log10*10
You’ll need to determine your calibration constants by experiment, and
you’d need to determine
what those should be for any given
bandwidth/center-frequency/gain-setting.
You can’t simply apply a fixed formula–there are too many uncertainties
in the analog realm
to make precision power measurement work without caibration
experiments. The power
seen by your detector (complex-to-mag-squared+filter) will be
proportional to:
GAIN*(system-noise+signal-power)
There’s substantial uncertainty in the precise value of GAIN, due to
inevitable, expected
part-to-part variability. If you, for example, command the GAIN on
your daughtercard to
65dB gain, the actual gain may vary by up to about 2dB, and such
uncertainties are
generally frequency dependent. RF amplifiers usually have somewhat
more gain at their
“bottom end” than at the “top end” of their frequency range. Further,
you don’t know
how much system-noise there is, at least, not precisely, which means
that for measuring
very small signals, the total-power seen by the detector may be
dominated by system-noise.
So, you have calibrate, through experiment. If you’re trying to make
precision power measurements,
you’re going to have to calibrate for each variation in your system
setup (gain settings,
frequency settings, bandwidth settings).
–
Principal Investigator
Shirleys Bay Radio Astronomy Consortium