Time-base nonlinearity determination using iterated sine-fit analysis

A new method is presented to determine the time-base errors of sampling instruments. The method does not require a time-base error model and thus provides accurate estimates where model-based methods fail. Measurements of sinewaves at multiple phases and frequencies are used as test signals. A harmonic distortion model is used to account for amplitude nonlinearity of the sampling channel. Use of an independent method for estimating the channel noise and jitter allows an accurate estimate of the harmonic order. Methods are presented for separating the harmonics generated by the sampling channel from those generated by the time-base distortion. The use of an iterative sine-fit procedure gives accurate results in a short time. A new weighting procedure is described, which minimizes the error in the estimates. Guidelines are given for selecting good sets of test frequencies. Results are shown for both simulated and real data.