Company Blog

Noise Analysis of Signal Components

29.03.2017

Noise PSD

In this blog post, we investigate the relation between the noise of signal amplitude and phase on one hand, and the noise of in-phase and quadrature components of the signal on the other hand. We try to respond to the wrong intuition stating that the standard deviation of signal amplitude is higher than the standard deviation of each signal components...

Per saperne di più

Fast Auto-Approach to Control Stepper Motor with the MFLI Threshold Unit

22.02.2017

TU Block Diagram

In many applications where the distance between two objects needs to be reduced to a predefined gap, the ability to control a stepper motor with clear stop conditions from different sensors is of high practical interest. Such functionality can be used to bring an optical lens to the appropriate working...

Per saperne di più

RF Reflectometry Measurements of Quantum Dots

20.02.2017

Coulomb Diamonds

Characterizing semiconductor spin qubits with radio-frequency (RF) reflectometry offers a speed advantage over low-frequency conductance measurements thanks to insensitivity to 1/f noise. In this blog post, the measurements of Josip Kukučka and his colleagues...

Per saperne di più

Compensating Delay-Induced Phase Shifts for High-Frequency Resonators

20.02.2017

Compensation Delay Schematic

Phase-locked loops (PLL) or other PID controllers on nano-mechanical resonators rely on clean phase signals that exhibit large slope, or significant phase shift, around the resonance frequency. For really high-frequency NEMS and opto-mechanical systems above a few tens or hundreds of MHz, any small delay can have significant effect on...

Per saperne di più

Time-Domain Response of Lock-in Filters

09.02.2017

Impulse Response

The heart of a lock-in amplifier is a phase-sensitive detector that includes a signal mixer and a low-pass filter. In this blog post, we focus on the time response of the low-pass filters implemented in the Zurich Instruments lock-in amplifiers including the MFLI, the HF2LI and the UHFLI...

Per saperne di più

The Nyquist Diagram for Electrical Circuits

11.01.2017

Schematic

The Nyquist diagram of a transfer function is a parametric plot of its imaginary part versus real part as the frequency sweeps in a certain range. When dealing with electric circuits, the transfer function is the immittance of the circuit, i.e., it can be either the impedance or the admittance of the circuit...

Per saperne di più

Frequency Response Measurement with Chirps and Leakage-Free FFT

28.10.2016

Good Chirp Setup

This post explains how to measure the frequency response of a component or system with high spectral resolution in a minimum amount of time. Rather than sweeping the frequency and recording each spectral point individually, the approach presented here is based on a fast and continuous change of the frequency...

Per saperne di più

Better Amplitude Accuracy with the MFLI Analog Adder

07.03.2016

HF Output Add

Many lock-in applications use a drive signal consisting of a small AC excitation voltage and larger DC offset voltage, for example differential conductance (dI/dV) measurements. Users of the MFLI Lock-in Amplifier have the choice between two methods to generate such a signal: using the analog adder ("Add"), or using digital...

Per saperne di più

Using Digital Lines as Trigger Sources

03.02.2016

Save Demod Data on Trigger High

Starting from the LabOne 15.11 release, accessible from our Download Center , all HF2LI users with the enabled HF2LI-WEB option can now benefit from the latest software developments that were previously reserved for the UHFLI. One tool that is now totally new for this instrument is the Software (SW) Trigger...

Per saperne di più

LabOne Software Trigger as a Tool for Multichannel Mapping Applications

25.11.2015

First 7 harmonics

In earlier blog posts, I presented several methods to synchronize data acquisition with third party instruments, either via the DIO input as a h ardware trigger (TTL pulse), some gated triggering scheme for pass/fail analysis or to capture only transient phenomena in a longer data stream ( ring-down method example)...

Per saperne di più

Eddy Current Testing with the MFLI Lock-in Amplifier

05.08.2015

Eddy current

This blog post describes a method to detect material defects. Eddy current measurements are used for non-destructive material testing (NDT). An alternating magnetic field is penetrating a sample. The material defect is detected by a phase shift. Experimental Setup

Per saperne di più

Optimizing PLL Performance with PID Advisor and Auto Tune

27.07.2015

Loop block diagram

LabOne provides two tools that save time and improve performance for anybody working with the UHF-PID option: the PID Advisor and the Auto Tune feature. They enable automation of the feedback parameter tuning required to achieve the best PID (proportional-integral-derivative) controller performance. In this blog post, we'll show you an example that demonstrates the power of both of these tools...

Per saperne di più

Achieving High Data Transfer Rates with the UHFLI

07.07.2015

Scope Streaming Schematic

The UHFLI Lock-in Amplifier features the smallest time constant on the market, making it an excellent instrument for fast measurements like in imaging applications. The UHFLI can provide demodulated data at a bandwidth of up to 5.2 MHz and sampled at up to 14 MSa/s...

Per saperne di più

Measuring the I-V Characteristic of PN Junction Devices with the HF2LI

13.05.2015

I-V Setup

Co-author and main contributor: Dr. Antonio Braga Introduction The p-n junction is the fundamental building block of semiconductor material electronics device such as transistors, diodes, sensors, laser, light emitting diodes, as well as solar cells. If one wants to know the fundamental functional properties of these devices, it is crucial...

Per saperne di più

Demodulating Down to DC with the HF2LI

18.11.2014

DC Demod

Many of our customers use the possibility to measure DC voltage and current, together with an ac signal by setting the demodulation frequency ω=0. The measured value is seemingly incorrect as you need to divide the obtained rms value with the factor of √2 to get the actual signal amplitude...

Per saperne di più