A generalized framework for digital adjustment or correction

This paper provides a unified technique to deal with a number of open-ended, digital adjustment and/or correction techniques that have grown up as "special cases." These include corrections for system imperfections in channel matching, in frequency response, and/or in transient response. In the situations under consideration there is always a controlling variable, such as signal amplitude, and a controlled or correctable variable, such as the transient response. All of the systems to be corrected require a combination of: stability, the ability to sort the controlling variable, a digital storage mechanism, a control or correction mechanism, and a standard to provide the means to adjust the final results to within the desired tolerance. The methods are illustrated with results from an actual, digitally sampling, two-channel, seven-amplitude range, 10 MHz, 100 A, pulse current generating and measuring system. These results include the digital correction of the transient response of the system and introduce a 100 A "flatness standard." By using these concepts one may usually achieve at least a ten times reduction in the uncertainty in the transfer function of the system that is adjusted or corrected.